Last night was clear all night. Had some dew getting on surfaces. Here is my last image while I was sleeping.
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The last two nights have been gorgeous. Clear, no wind, i.e., perfect. I shut things down about 0530 yesterday, and about 0400 this morning. Got a lot of nebulas with my Origin, and did science observations with my eV2. The Horsehead has been a popular target here, and I captured it too with my Origin.
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I always enjoy seeing the different images of the same objects taken with different equipment. See any difference between Dave’s image and mine? The more expensive scope does not always capture the better image.
Was up to 0530 Wed night / Thur morning and 0400 this morning. Calling it an early night tonight so I can help break down the camp and finish loading my gear.
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Okie and Tex have left the field. The
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party’s over. At least for this year.
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My Okie-Tex 2025 Review:
After 9 hours on the road, I arrived on Friday (Sept 19th) at exactly 6:55 AM with only a few minutes wait until the gates opened and I could start my sunburns. The first night started with a forboding overcast, but actually turned out to be a great night. Some went to sleep earlier and missed it.
Saturday night was a different story. Around 10:15 PM, I was in the Cosmic Cafe playing cards when a kid ran in and said all our 5 tents are gone or broken. Now I was expecting some rain, but never expected a full downpour with gusts of wind that could even move my hurricane-proof body frame. Also, I would not call this lightning, but instead it looks like someone just turned the sky on and occasionally flipped it off for 0.01 seconds. My poor dog was alone in my tent, and I knew what I had to do. With a lightning rod in my hand (cane), I limped as fast as I could to my tent down the hill, expecting to get struck by lightning at any time. I made it to my tent and after 2 minutes found the correct 1 zipper out of the 7 options that opened the door. Hyzer was on my sleeping bag, crying. We both curled in a ball for the next never-ending minutes, expecting the worst at any time. The amazing ground drank up the water within hours, and you may have been called a liar by a newcomer telling a story of the previous night’s rain. We survived to see more rainy days and then a great few days to end the adventure.
View from inside my tent during the storm: https://blastroidsco…okt25/storm.mov
The staff did a great job, as always, setting up the camp with power and 1998 internet speeds. I did hear some of the field had nightly power issues, but my side of the field near the presentation building did fine. I do suggest getting a battery power station that allows you to use and charge at the same time, so if the power does go out, it keeps on ticking through the night. No Nora virus this year, but a propane outage at the beginning of the week caused a small meal delay and change.
I made a couple of Boise City runs and was saddened to see that the local Dairy Queen has closed. Along my travels, I saw the concrete dinosaur femur bone on the road and an ancient petrified forest. I was also sad to see the Kenton store (Mercantile) had a new owner who decided not to reopen the store. Last year, the lady working there mentioned she was planning to sell while holding my dog Hyzer after making me a delicious hot dog. I did not order a few meals at the Cosmic Cafe this year, with the plans of this store and DQ filling the spots.
As always, when the skies at Camp Billy Joe do show themselves, they leave you in awe. You can see the Milky Way band from horizon to horizon with the naked eye. Small fuzzies such as Andromeda, Pleiades, and others dance in the corner of your eye. In the dark, you meet others, only to match the face days later in the daylight. Surrounded by my new community, we set into the nights with observers, imagers, and even an illustrator. I tried my best to help the new ASIAIR users and did some troubleshooting for connection issues. I have been in the same situation myself and always appreciated learning from the experienced. Astrophotography is not about learning how to do something correctly, but how to learn from the hundreds of things you did wrong. It is a marathon of baby steps with an unreachable finish line of perfection.
Until next year, may the stars shine bright and the moon dim.
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