Astronomy Events

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…]

From Dave Majors: I was at the Boy Scout event on 10/29-30 with over 500 scouts and possibly rainy weather, and it turned out better than I thought it would (given the weather forecast). It clouded over as the sun was going down but I did get the chance to [Read More…]

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…]

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…]

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…]

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…]

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…]