[APML] TSP report

[Robert Reeves <reeves10@swbell.net>]

Well... Tony hit it on the head.  He sent me an email just before TSP saying
I was going to get skunked at this year's Texas Star Party.  He was right.
Of the five days I was there, only one night was good, Wednesday.  Thursday
and Friday were iffy until early AM, but even them there was high sirus that
mucked things up at times and over the horizon lightning flashes played hell
with with wide-aperture astrophotography.

So overall, this was the cloudiest, dustiest, and windiest Texas Star Party
I have ever seen.  While I was assembling the mount on Tuesday afternoon, I
was pelted by so much blowing sand and dirt that I got an eye infection for
two days.  I got to use my new mount one night.  I was having some
electrical problems with the RA drive,  I think I had low amperage to the
motor.  But then the dust froze the tangent arm.  I would apply a correction
and the screw would squeel, then the whole assembly would pop and the guide
star would jump completely over the crosshairs.  The next night, Kent
Kirkley let me use his Takahashi Sky Patrol, so I was able to carry on
another evening.  On Friday, the lightning was so bad I didn't even uncover
the Takahashi.  (If Kent ever wants to sell that toy, I got first dibs on
it!).   To ad insult to injury, the dust even ruined the main zipper on my
tent and I could not close it up.  I had visions of waking up in the morning
and finding a gaggle of people outside pointing through the flapping tent
front and laughing at my furry hienie as I slept.  It was a weird TSP.

I left last night after the final ceremonies and drove back home in the
night.  The wind was so bad that around midnight the sheriff in Ft. Stockton
on IH-10 actually pulled me over to make sure I was sober.  My Bronco was
being blown from one lane to another by wind gusts and he thought I was a
drunk driver.  Once I explained what was happening, he didn't even ask me
for my licence and sent me on my way.   I have never experienced wind like
that in west Texas.

Jason and Kent, did you have wind problems on the way up to Dallas?

But on the upside, I did get to meet old friends, see some of the faces
behind APML names, and best of all, got some good advice on how to refocus
my Schmidt camera (which I found was out of focus three days before I left
for TSP).

Robert Reeves                      reeves10@swbell.net
520 Rittiman Rd.                   www.robertreeves.com
San Antonio, Texas 78209    210-828-9036
USA                                     29.484  98.440  200 meters




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