The 2001 Texas Star Party was held at the Prude Ranch near Ft. Davis, Texas from May 13 to May 20th, 2001. 

Moon rising 4:30am Monday morning (it was in its last quarter, the photo was purposely overexposed to get the clouds)

The last evening, Saturday night/Sunday morning, was unbelievably crisp, clean, dry, and still. The group I was with was having a ball seeing some of the more difficult objects on the advanced observing list, this year's standard observing list, as well as the "Glorious Globulars" from last year (I did get my pin, earlier in the week, for this year's 2001 observing list, which spelled `2001' in the sky with a dark nebula (B143) at the end representing the Monolith.).  This was the place to take pictures and just a few of the astrophotos I took can be found under the Images section of this web site.

 There was only 1 other excellent dusk to dawn night near the front of the week for viewing. But there were two other nights that turned out excellent, though starting out uneven, after about 2-2:30 in the morning. One person from Australia complained that someone should have rang a loud bell over the ranch to get everyone back out to their telescopes because, in his words, "I didn't travel 13,000 miles here to sleep."

The "Ghetto"

I was fortunate enough to have set up amidst a varied group of individuals who were to also stay the entire week. We all struck up a very good kinship by the end of TSP and had a great time sharing our observations and experiences. We were in a separate area by some pavilions in the lower field that we found many people nicknamed "The Ghetto". It was a name we took with pride and turned out to be a great location since it was near everything (snack bar, meeting/registration/dining), but the vendor's hall. It also had very few dust problems compared to what they had on the upper field. We didn't really seem to lose much in the way of viewing either, with Omega Centauri still very high above the horizon.

Hazel, with her 20" dob looming above

Four of us had seven Meade telescopes between us and the collection of blue tubes had someone asking if we were the Meade showroom (which we weren't). But even with this brand concentration, we still had quite a variety of scopes. To the north of me was Hazel Lawler, with her 20" truss Dob. Hazel came to TSP with her husband, Dick, from Arizona City, Arizona. Hazel had been to 7 previous TSP's and had been observing for several years. She has been retired for several years and took up astronomy early in that retirement. She also has a 10" LX-200 with a superwedge at her home that she just recently purchased. But I can tell you that her star hopping abilities were as good as anyone I have ever met. Of course, this all comes from planning and practice, but she could make that big Dob of hers find just about anything in its reach.

Lynn & Kent trying out a Lynn's new eyepiece

South of my pad were Steve Sartor and Kent Francis, both from the city of Houston. They came with their 10" and 8" LX-200's, respectively, as well as a pair of ETX-90EC's. They gave us observing pleasures during the days as well as nights since they had solar filters for their scopes which brought in some very nice solar images with a lot of activity to be seen. They had both just recently put wedges on their LX-200's (Steve had a Superwedge on his) and were going through the pains of learning to polar align their telescopes without their computers losing their minds (or Steve and Kent losing theirs). They were doing this with the idea of doing some astrophotography, of course, and so they weren't interested in an alignment just good enough for viewing. Fortunately, there were several seasoned LX-200 operators at TSP who were able to get them started. But, judging from their experience, it is not a step to be taken lightly for those LX-200 owners who are considering it (It also helps to make sure that the bubble level on the tripod is actually accurate, as Steve subsequently found out two weeks later!).

Steve trying to remember, "Is it polar align or solar align?"

Lynn and Cynthia Gibson, from Burnett, Texas were just to the east of me. Lynn brought his 10" LX-200 and a 4" Meade SCT which was the forerunner to the ETX (the model number escapes me now, but I am sure many of you remember that scope). Lynn was a fairly experienced visual observer. He had a TeleVue Everbrite 2" diagonal on his scope that was especially nice for observing Jupiter on its way down in the early evening sky. I am not sure if it was because of the Everbrite coatings (which are supposed to have better than 98% reflectivity), but several DSO's in his scope had a nice contrast better than any other scope around (other than Hazel's) that was due to more than just good collimation (It seemed that all of our scopes were in good collimation for the week; I had adjusted mine before I left and it checked out fine after I set up at the ranch).

Cynthia's reaction to Lynn's new eyepiece

Fellowship and friendships like these are what make a star party more special. We were able to help each other out, share practical ideas on how to make our observing and our instruments easier and better to use. We would also talk about ourselves and by the end of the week, have a pretty good snapshot of each others' lives to keep in our pockets, take home and remember. Steve and Lynn liked their coffee hot and fresh at night. Hazel would stay up till 4am while her husband Dick would either watch the basketball playoffs in the trailer or sleep. Kent, with his extensive Nagler collection, tried every eyepiece variation that he could on objects he enjoyed seeing (and was more than willing to share his great views). And we would all feel as if the night had been worth it, regardless of its transparency or seeing conditions.

Deer outside my tent in the early morning

Another found friendship for me was Jason and Joan Fry. Jason is a United Methodist Minister (I am also a Methodist) pastoring the church in Kingsville, Texas. He is also the president of the newly formed club in Kingsville, which was listed in the latest issue of "The Reflector" (his wife is listed as the secretary). He is also active in Boy Scouts (he has a son in Scouting and is an Eagle himself) and had been to Philmont as a youth and adult, which gave us much in common with which to talk and reminisce. He and his wife, like me, had been out to Ft. Davis often over the past years. This was his second TSP and he brought an Orion SkyQuest XT 8" Dob. He has been keeping a detailed Messier journal and is well on his way towards his Messier certificate.

All in all, it was reported Saturday that a total of 755 registered for TSP. Looking around at the 7 major fields (plus the several small areas adjacent to those fields) spread over the Prude Ranch, one could tell that the logistics of people and equipment behind those registrations were staggering. Some of the well known amateurs, such as Jason Ware, were there as well as many others who brought a wide range of many different scopes from the small to the large, the simple to the complex. I saw everything from a 36" Dob to a small pair of binoculars (mine, of course!), and everything in between. There were several of the more unusual scopes as well, including a couple of Ritchey's, an 8" refractor, and some other interesting compound scopes. The vendors were there in force, of course, and many deals were to be had during the week.

Peer pressure buying took its toll much more effectively than any of the salesmanship artistry that Uncle Al himself could muster. I myself had always been interested in getting some Astrocards, but could never figure how I could use them effectively until I saw the "light". Or the light table rather. The makers of Astrocards, who also publish the "Night Sky Observer's Guide – Vol.'s 1 & 2", have come out with a Card Lighter, which I have never seen in person before. It is a little hand held light table with an adjustable red diffuse back glow that lets you slide an Astrocard into it so you can read it in the dark and hold it in one hand without having to hold another flashlight. I purchased one with cards on Monday and used it that night with great results. The next night, all of us in our group had one. I asked the vendor a couple of days later about that and he said by the second night he had sold all of his inventory he set aside for both TSP and the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. We all got a few other neat deals during the week of course (but no door prizes, deep sigh). I bought a nebula filter for $40 and Lynn purchased a 32mm 2" Erfle by Antares for just $99 (which gave an outstanding showing of the Trio in Leo in a single field of view of just over 1 degree; I finally caved in and bought one later). Kent ended up being the gadgetmeister of the group, though, when he bought a little used ST-4 camera with controls and accessories (I believe he paid $250 or so, it was quite a deal).

The sessions during the day were very good and appealed to a variety of interests reflected by the attendees. There was more than one good session on imaging and astrophotography techniques as well as an excellent seminar on the more advanced deep sky objects. The latter seminar was especially helpful in bringing those DSO's into closer reach of those who haven't tried them out before. Because of schedule changes due to a death in the family of one of the presenters, Stephen James O' Meara gave presentations on both Friday and Saturday night. T

he giveaways were awesome of course, with obligatory bowing, scraping, and faux prayers offered to the 2 Nagler type 5 31mm eyepieces that were given away. A Celestron 80mm WA (short tube on eq. Mount), a Meade ETX-125, and a Meade LX-90 were also among the big scope giveaways. I was especially interested in the Lumicom filter selector and filter sets (two of them) that were given away. But no such luck this year, although it did identify for me what some of my next purchase priorities will be.

The final, Saturday night, with all of its clear glory, was a fitting conclusion to an enjoyable time. I will, barring something terrible, return here next year to enjoy, once again, this fellowship of exploration under the darkest skies around.