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Trinity School Star Party

January 18, 2011 Aurora Lipper 0

On Jan 7 Joe Carro and I attended a star party at Trinity Lutheran Church School in Paso Robles at the invitation of Jackie Loper- one of the teachers at this school. This event was a wild success with 50 or so students and parents in attendance. To start with- [Read More…]

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Star Party at the Nipomo Native Gardens

December 21, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

December 1, 2010 Visitors: Administrators, Adults and students from the Guadalupe-Nipomo, Dunes Center Chris Estrada, Dave Majors, and I (Tom Frey) held a star party on 12/1/10 at the Nipomo Native Gardens (NNG) in Nipomo, CA. This was at the request made to Cindy Jelinek and Charlie Gulyash, members of [Read More…]

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Lunar Eclipse

December 20, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

There’s a full lunar eclipse on Dec 21st at 3:17am Eastern Time (12:17am Pacific) which is visible from all of North America! If you have no idea what a lunar (as opposed to solar) eclipse is, check out this new JPL information video: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=950 For those of you more experienced [Read More…]

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West Templeton Star Gazing

December 2, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

On the night of 28 November 2010, a star party was held at a residence in West Templeton. Astronomer Joseph Carro met with Mary Gardner and members of her family. There were five adults and six children at the house on Claassen Road. Upon his arrival, the skies were cloudy, [Read More…]

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New Planet around Gliese 581

September 30, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

I figure we will be asked about the planet discovery that was in the paper so here are the stats: Star Name: Gliese 581 – also listed as variable star HO Lib Spect: M3V Mass: .031 Suns Luminosity: .013 Suns Apparent Mag: 10.55 Surface Temp: 3500 K Distance: 20 ly [Read More…]

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1 Meter Telescope: Assembled

September 26, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

After being worked on at Reed and Chris Estrada’s place in Lancaster, California, the 1 meter photometric telescope has been moved back to the Orion Observatory (near Santa Margarita Lake not far from San Luis Obispo, California). Below are some photographs (taken by Cheryl Genet) of the telescope being set [Read More…]

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Star Party on Sept 4th Success!

September 10, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

Wow… what a beautiful night! We had such a great time with the clear night as tons of folks trekked up the hill. Many thanks extend out to Kent Wallace, Pete Roebber, Chris and Reed Estrada for their time, telescopes, and talent! We had mostly ‘big guns’ up at the [Read More…]

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Stary Party at the KOA

August 9, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

The August 7, 2010 KOA star party was a success even though there were only 4 telescopes. Dave was there with his 12″ Intelliscope, Kent with his 20″ Starsplitter and Reed with his and Chris’s homebuilt 22″. A 6″ Newt on a German equatorial arrived after dark and was set [Read More…]

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Thunder at a Star Party!

July 12, 2010 Aurora Lipper 0

From VP Chris Estrada: The last Star Party on July 10, 2010 at the Santa Margarita KOA had mixed results… Only 4 scopes turned up… Reed Estrada and I, Tom Frey, Pete Roebbers and David Majors… There was a modest public turn out… The afternoon started out iffy but then [Read More…]