Had a great week at Staunton River Start Party with my son and friends Rob, Paul, Matt, Dave and many others! The star party is great! The park staff are awesome. The diner they operate 22 hours a day during the star party is a real treat! One night’s special Read more…
This past week I attended my 3rd ECVAR, East Coast Video Astronomy Rendezvous at Coolbreeze Campground outside of Galax, VA. Compared to last year’s washout thanks to Hurricane Michael, this year was a real treat! We were able to get 4 nights of observing. I spent most of my time Read more…
You may have heard the term ‘Messier Marathon’ used by amateur astronomers. No, this is not an attempt to run 26.2 miles carrying your telescope. Rather, this is where you try to observing all 110 objects on Charles Messier’s, an 18th century astronomer, list of of fuzzy bright objects visible Read more…
Due to the abundance of rain the week before, no campers were allowed on the field for the 2019 Spring SRSP. Instead, we set up in the parking lot down by the swimming pool with the other RVs. We were able to hook up to power down by swimming pool/cafe/locker Read more…
As it turns out, 2018 was not a very good year for observing. The weather was most non-cooperative especially with Hurricane Michael ruining 2 star parties for me. Finally, a good observing night! Despite accidentally turning off the power from my battery to all the downstream hardware (camera, mount, computer, Read more…
My youngest son joined me for the fall 2017 installment of the Staunton River Star Party (SRSP). As with most star parties, it’s great to see old friends, make new ones, and just spend time together with others that enjoy the same hobby. I set up in-between fellow club members Read more…
It was another enjoyable successful SRSP this spring. I got to see some old friends and make some new ones. I arrived later than I wanted on Wednesday, the first night of the Spring SRSP after waiting for some last minute equipment to arrive in the mail. This star party Read more…
I attended another great star party in October, this month it was the 2016 Fall Staunton River Star Party. I believe this year’s fall event was the largest to date with over 160 registered attendees! I attended all 6 nights of the event. While we experienced quite a bit of Read more…
This was my first ECVAR and it definitely did not disappoint! ECVAR is not your standard star party. Yes, it’s about observing, but it’s about observing with a video camera and not with eyepieces. The view thru the telescope is fed to a computer or monitor for all to see. Read more…
The October 2015 issue of Sky & Telescope had a very interesting article, written by Ted Forte, entitled “A Few of My Favorite Things.” In this article, Mr, Forte provides guidance on how to view several galaxy groups in the constellation Pegasus. Needless to say, I was intrigued and captured Read more…