The Eldorado Star Party was hosted by the Austin and San Antonio astronomy clubs. It is an annual event held at the X-Bar Ranch just south of Eldorado Tx. This year the event took place the first week of November.
The weather and skies were simply unbelievable! I had three very successful nights hunting for "faint fuzzies" with my new Z10.
This was the first real challenge for the Z10. The scope easily pulled in galaxies down to 11th and 12th magnitudes. It is truly amazing what these light buckets can achieve.
The telescope observation list that the organizers provided was in a word "challenging." I was unsuccessful at completing the list, but by no means did this detract from the experience. I found lots of other objects on the H400 list to observe. I spent a lot of time in Cetus, observing and sketching. My sketches will be a subject of another post.
The facilities at the ranch, were a little on the "rustic" side. There were hot showers which were appreciated as the weather was a little on the cold side. Potable water was also available. The ranch has very limited accommodations and so most attendees either camped or stayed off site. I chose to camp and to cook my own meals. This worked out well and I would do it again.
One of my favorite activities of any star party is to look for the "unusual" or "creative" examples from our hobby. Well here is the blue ribbon winner of this party. This is a 10" scope which has been adorned with gadgets and accouterments which enables the observer to be as productive as possible. The owner of the scope made the comment that his scope has "character" and I could not agree more.
Clear skies;
rw
