Texas Star Party

April of 2009, I had the opportunity to go to my first Texas Star Party (TSP). The setting, as it has been in recent years, was the Prude Ranch near Ft Davis, Texas. I was working my day job the first part of the week, but I managed to take two days off. I hopped in my pick-up truck at the end of work on Wednesday afternoon.

My pick-up is set up with a simple camper shell. My Orion XT10 fits easily in its soft case on the right side of the bed of the truck and I fit nicely on a camping mattress on the left side. The arrangement lets me stop at a campground or a star-field and quickly set up my gear.

I drove west on I-10 for five hours and arrived at the campground at Balmorhea State Park. The sky was dark there, but it was completely covered by clouds. I slept well and when I got up the next day, I went to the famous spring-fed swimming pool and rinsed off before driving the 40 miles up to the Prude Ranch.

I got to the “center of the universe” at about 9 AM. I checked in and got my tent pass at the ranch-house/dining room. I found an open slot along the road side of the middle observing field. As I was setting up my equipment, I found out from the fellows on either side of me that this spot had been occupied until the previous day. The previous occupant had broken his leg walking to the bathroom in the dark. (He tripped over a tent guy rope.) They wished me a good stay at the TSP and hoped that I did better than the previous astronomer.

For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, I wandered around the observing fields. There were easily several hundred telescopes set up. Many were under shiny metallic covers. There were counterbalanced binocular stands. I greatly admired the Couch Potato Telescope (CPT) and was able to meet its designer, Sim Picheloup. (Before the end of the TSP I had bought a kit from Sim to build my own CPT)

After lunch, I wandered up to the vendor area and looked through the booths. I bought a book by O’Meara on how to approach the Hershell 400 List. The Hershell list is a group of 400 mostly-dim deep sky objects. All of them need to be found to get the Hershell 400 certificate from the Astronomical League. More than that, the Hershell 400 certificate is the hardest of the required certificates for the Master Observer certificate. Receiving the Master Observer award is a goal that I have set for myself over the next couple years.

I brought the book and some information about the CPT back to my truck and settled down to do some reading and napping for the rest of the afternoon. It was warm, but I was able to get in a couple hours of sleep.

Late in the afternoon, I went to the meeting hall where Mexico Doug (one of the guys I camped next to) was giving a talk on collecting the meteorites from a large meteorite that fell south of Dallas earlier in the spring.

After I came back from the meeting hall, Doug introduced me to a group of observers who were hanging out under a couple shelters under a shade tree about 40 yards down the field from where I was. They kindly offered me a cold beer and a chair. Before the end of the TSP I was a member of the TSP Shade Tree Gang. (http://tspshadetreegang.com) I think my membership was assured when I showed up on Friday with a couple cold six packs for the group.

That evening, the sky turned mostly clear. The photographers were not pleased with the conditions, but it was a fine evening to run the 5x5 list and the Globular Glory list with my telescope. After I got that accomplished, I turned in for a nice rest.

Friday was another day of discovery – seeing what sorts of equipment folks had brought. I bought a hardware kit for the CPT binocular chair from Sim Picheloup. I also persuaded him to let me use a chair with my binoculars that night to run the TSP binocular list. He was very gracious to agree to my request. I bought a silver colored cover for my telescope to keep it out of the sprinkles and the sun – both of which came through the ranch that afternoon. Just before setting out for the McDonald Observatory for a great tour, I got my 5x5 and Globular Glory pins from a legend at the TSP. John Wagnoner was sitting in a folding chair outside the Meeting Room at one PM and he wanted to see my log. There was not much conversation, but I felt honored to have him look at my logs.

Late in the afternoon, clouds rolled into the ranch, so I rolled into the meeting hall with the majority of the other observers. The place was packed. It was the awards and rewards part of the meeting that most people were there for. But we had a great talk by a former ISS crew member. He had some great pictures of cities at night. It reminded me how much problem we have with light pollution and how special a place like the TSP is. I stuck around the meeting, listening to really bad jokes, and without surprise left without having won anything.

The sky was covered from one horizon to the other with clouds when I got out of the meeting hall. I went to bed and checked the sky about 1 AM. It was remarkably clear. Almost no one was observing. A couple guys doing astrophotography said that the sky was absolutely great for imaging. The cloudless part of the sky only lasted a couple hours, in which I was able to run the TSP binocular list from Sim’s chair. It was handy that the list only required finding half of the objects – because about half the objects were hidden by clouds.

By the next morning, the sky was mostly cloud covered and the forecast was for continued cloudy conditions through Sunday. Most of the folks that had vehicles began packing up. I was packed and on the road by about 10 AM. I stopped again at Balmorhea to take a dip and wash off sweat and dust. I was home by mid afternoon.

I unpacked my truck and sent John Wagnoner a letter with a copy of my binocular log. He was nice enough to send me a pin in the mail. These few days ended up being a simple, inexpensive trip that pegged my fun meter for astronomy for about a month.

I will be going back to the TSP. It is a nice time to get to know others, learn new tricks, and have fun observing in a great dark sky site.