Oregon Star Party with Internet Access, entry 1
Last night, as dusk was falling, I stared with apprehension at dark, ominous clouds that stretched from the eastern to northern horizon. Fearing rain, I put away my table cloth and everything upon my campsite table and battened down the hatches as much as I could. Even with this afeared pending rain, I dressed for a night of observing as darkness fell.
Getting up to the observing area, I noticed many telescopes were still under their silver blankets. It was a partly cloudy sky after all. I eyed the thunderhead that appeared in the distant east-southeast. Many other parts of the sky were dark and star-filled. With hope for a miracle that the storm would pass us by, I sat on my stool and re-accquainted myself with the night sky.
There’s Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Scorpius. Well, parts of Scorpius. Can’t see much of Sagittarius at all. The Summer Triangle and its respective constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila, were looking crisp and clear at the zenith.
Oh, look! While I had been greeting the rest of the night sky, the thunderhead had either dissipated or moved away! And with this good turn of events, I uncovered my scope, adjusted the Telrad on Polaris, put in a 25mm eyepiece and observed til 3am.
The Oregon Star Party is an event for astronomers or anyone with an interest in dark, non-light-polluted skies, held once a year in the Ochoco Mountains of Eastern Oregon.
