It had been four years since my last trip to the Table Mountain Star Party north of Ellensburg, Washington state. It always seemed to conflict with another annual camping trip. This time would have been too many. So off I went, and took Ralph and Ed (Celestron C14 and C102HD telescopes) with me. Here then, is a photo journal of the trip. The pictures appear more in geographic order than chronologic. If you don't understand the stereo icons below the thumbnails, click this link for help. Lastly, the pictures here have all been resized to fit onto typical monitors/screens from large originals. If you see a picture that you really like or of your scope or whatever and you want the large version, write me and ask for it. They're typically 800 kB and 2048x1536 pixels in size.

2004 Table Mountain Star Party

On the Way In
	The drive up the mountain is steep, narrow, and curvy in some places. The Subaru's temperature gauge inspires a moment of pause and reflection on the beauty of the surrounding nature. The road I've just come up is in the gully below, and Ellensburg lies in the plains beyond.
	A little farther on is a field of these wild flowers. It looks like it might be False Solomon's-Seal. If it really is this plant, it might have been fertilized by some of the cattle roaming these parts, and the steroids the cattle were fed might have beefed up these plants. They'd be huge for this species.
	Coming up in elevation, the flowered alpine fields begin to emerge amongst the trees, and the ambient light gets brighter. A couple of folks headed towards the star party have stopped to see if I need help. Thanks - but only more horsepower could help.
	At last - the top! Here it is only Wednesday, and the site is already full of campers. It's just another 100m or so to the intersection. Turning left and going a ways, the shot at right is looking back at the road I just came up. It's above the distant stand of trees.
	On final approach to the check-in tent, the view at left is of the east telescope field. At right is a view of the final few meters before the gate. The sign next to the road reads, "No, Slower!". It's amazing how easily dust gets kicked up. Dust + Telescopes = Very Bad. And expensive.
Are We There Yet? - Yes!
Just inside the gate is where the group meals are served up. The wall of the coffee barista's tent (for real! Open til midnight, or later if demand is up) is just caught at the left edge here.
	At left, I've walked south half way through Vendor Alley, and am looking back. At right, I've come to the south end.
Aside from breaking the monotony of the day, it was a real treat to have all these vendors available, and there were some really good prices to be found. Alas, I have everything I really want for astronomy (aside from living under a dark sky), although I'm finding that either a two-inch OIII or UHC filter would be really nice... and hydrogen-alpha filter... Santa, you readin' this? It was fun to see all the stuff for sale.
	(left) Stepping onto the east scope field and looking north, you can see the vendors' camps and the road leading out. At right is a view from there to the southeast, and the promise of a starry sky as sunlight is about to leave the ground.
	At the southern end of the east field, there was this very complex-looking equatorial newtonian. All I could think was, "Wow!"
The Main Scope Field
	Starting back at the NE corner of the main scope field, there was this intents (oo!) colony of campers. And all those scopes, covered to keep them cool by day so they take less time to cool by night.
	Looking SE (left) and SW (right). Note the fellow reading under the shade of his (18-inch?) scope. It actually got very cool in the shade.
	Walking west along the road and facing SW, it's useful to keep track of the green and yellow John Deere scope in the distance. During the day, it was anchored, pointing north. The green table/bench at left is also in the picture at right, which was taken facing NE. If I'm not mistaken, that's a 29+some-inch dobsonian at right.
	At left, I think the 11-inch NextStar GPS 11-inch was just a pan to the left from the 8" giant refractor at right. So many scopes, so little memory...
	I think I was just SE of John Deere scope, and facing north to get the shot at left. There's a scope in the foreground with a hydrogen-alpha filter. Note the two brown-clothed dobs in the distance: you've seen them up above (filename 024). Stepping east, I got the picture at right.
	At left, I've stepped just NW of the JD scope and am looking back SE. I think either I just turned around to get the shot at right, and maybe walked a few more steps west as well.
	We're pretty much at the NW corner of the main field. I was told before this scope was a Takahashi. I think not, now. I suspect this was an award-winning homebuilt (though the extra brace between the objective and the counter weights is new to me), and the tube was made from irrigation pipe. Anybody know for sure? At right, we're a bit farther SW, looking E.
From about the same place, I got this small panorama. It starts in the NE at left, and ends facing south at the right. Ralph (my C14) is still under mylar wrap, just beyond the blue-clothed dob the two fellows are working with in the SSE.
	Walking south along the road on the west side, here's a view to the SE (left), and next to "my" spot (right). There's Ralph and Ed (Ed's a C102HD) to the right, uncovered. Ralph has the red dust cap at the prime focus.
	At left is the view I had to the north. My Wednesday-night neighbor had an orange-tube C5: a classic beauty! The next night, I had a Meade 10" alt-az computer techno thingie for a neighbor (it's in the above right picture). Then at right, there's me, standing next to Ralph and Ed.
	Another neighbor had this curious instrument: the mirrors came out of a laser communication system, and he built the mount himself. The secondary was about the size of an old 45rpm record, and it had a central hole, too. I never got to see through the scope though. I thought the woodworking on the dob at right was well done. I'm not sure now where in the field it was.
	Then there were these two brothers from Tacoma... They had built twin metal marvels for dobs, and I had camped next to one of them in 2000. The scope was rather harshly judged that year. It performed quite well this year, and they introduced me to the beautiful "blue snowball" (NGC 7992). I passed that view on to many more people. Thanks!
	At the very southern tip of the main scope field are two big, bad boys - the 30-inch monster dobs! It wasn't just the sheer size of these guys that was so impressive. It's the workmanship that went into them as well. This one is notable for its monitoring equipment and fine woodworking. Even the guide scope has class!
	At left is a closeup of the control panel of this finely-made machine. At right is a beauty of a different sort: it shows off how elegant simplicity can be, even in monster machines. Also, the little scope to the right has a hydrogen-alpha filter in it, and we watched prominences for a while. There were several of these scopes around this year.
A third scope field was NW of the main field. This panorama begins at left facing W and ends up facing north. Last time I was here (2000), this was a camping ground, four or so rows of vehicles/tents deep, and I was camped there. There were also 1200 campers. This year, the party was to be limited to 700. I don't know what the final head count was.
	Stepping into the alternate scope field, this is a view across the kids' play field, and the grey rain fly of my tent is just left of center. At right, I've crossed into the play field, and am looking back at the alternate scope field.
What Else is there to Do? One of the daytime activities I enjoyed was a geode hunt. After getting a half-hour talk about what's been happening in the world over the past few million years, we all went for a mile hike to an outcropping with lots of "geodes". They're rocks with what looks like molten glass had been dripped onto them. That was quartz that cooled too quickly to crystalize into the hexagonal crystals we usually think of as crystals. Very pretty stuff, actually.
	Anyway... at left is just a view into the forest from the road. At right is the rest of that day's rock-hounding herd.
	How about bug watching? The female White-spotted Sawyer beetle (Monochamus scutellatus) at left was about 4cm long, and so were the antennae! At right, there were lots of alpine meadow flowers too, but the puffy seed pods of this balloonpod milkvetch (astragalus whitneyi) really caught my attention. They're about as big as one joint on my thumb.
Other group activities included talks on various NASA missions, a talk on bats, and many other activities you can read about at the TMSP site's "Activities" page.
	The walk to Lion Rock is short, and the rewards in the view are tremendous. At left is a view to the south, at right to the NNW.
	Truly though, we are there for the sky and above. At left, I'm watching with anticipation my shadow getting long (and Ralph's, to my left), and at right, crepuscular rays heading off towards the nightrise.
	This picture of a lenticular cloud was an attempt to capture its exotic appearance, but I think you had to be there. At right, Ralph, Ed, and I are all looking towards Jupiter in the evening twilight.
The Trip in (mostly) Words Wednesday, July 14th The skies were kind to us this year. Wednesday was benignly overcast while setting up camp and the scope. It cleared up a lot just as the Sun set, although I had to wait a while before I could see Polaris well enough to align Ralph. It remained slightly hazy, and around 1:00, some persistent clouds started to form out of thin air. I didn't trust the weather well enough to bother setting up Ed, so I turned in. I heard tell the next day that it cleared up again. Certainly, it was sunny the next morning. Thursday I was fortunate to have gotten a camp spot next to a huge pop-up type trailer tent, and it shielded my tent from the early morning Sun. So I got to sleep in until 9:00. I ate, then walked to Lion Rock - always a gorgeous view. When I got back, I found my site offered a front-row view of the stomp rocket competition. The kids had spent time in the dome making rockets out of paper. I'm not sure what the hose material was made of, but it was hooked to a 2-liter soda bottle. They slipped their rockets over the hose, pointed out over the field, and stomped on the bottles. A few sort of "foofed" on launch, going only a few feet (there's one on the ground in the picture), most went maybe 30 feet, but a few really went the distance - maybe 100 feet or more. That was really fun to see! I spent the rest of the day perusing the vendors, walking around looking at scopes or through them, and reading a book about Messier. It was a treat to be able to look through the scopes with the H-alpha filters. My whole life, I had wondered just how fast prominences and flares moved around. So now I can say, with the Sun filling the field of view, it is possible to detect motion over the course of a few minutes. To me, that was spectacular. Thursday evening brought us the very strange lenticular cloud pictured up above. Its resemblance to some alien spacecraft lent itself to some related humor. Then it started looking like a threat to viewing the night sky. Fortunately it dissipated, and Thursday night was fantastic - clear all night long. The brothers from Tacoma introduced me to the "Blue Snowball", NGC 7992. Very nice, very blue, although it took me two more nights to really get down how to locate it. I stayed up until 2:30, Friday morning. It started getting light. Venus was spectacular (duh!). Friday
	I woke up in enough time to catch the geology talk/walk, along with about 50 others. I got a rock that seemed interesting to me: it had the quartz, some iron deposit, and some red and yellow. I have no idea what that makes it, but if you can tell me from the pictures enclosed here, I'd love to learn. The face you see at left is about 2cm across. It was fun to watch the kids - they were wearing safety glasses and had a blast, whacking the rocks with hammers in search of geode eggs.
	Later in the day, I was looking across "my" yard, and noticed this very comfortable, peaceful looking scene: a fellow reading a book in a chair in the shade of this big pine. Beyond him and those trees is the main scope field.
That night it was clear from start to finish. I started it off by buying my usual coffee (grande mocha). I had also bought a set of finder charts of "Overlooked Objects" from one of the vendors that day, and started going through that list. I'm realizing that my night vision is getting bad, and I have to use reading glasses for the charts, regular glasses to use the Telrad, and then no glasses for the scope. Very... clumsy. As my Dad would say, "It's no fun, getting old; but the alternative isn't so good, either." This night Ralph, Ed and I had an interesting visit. It was a group of five Japanese schoolgirls. Verbal communication was minimal. So I showed them pictures in the book I have on Messier objects of what we happened to be seeing through the scope: Ms 57, 13, 11, 17, 27... Then they thanked me and were gone. Another group of a few came by. This time, we were able to communicate enough that I learned they were part of a group of 21 that came to Seattle for 3 months as exchange students. One of the biggest kicks they seemed to get out of it all was looking through the Telrad to see where we were pointing. It appears the word "target" is the same in both our languages. I was still pretty wide awake when the eastern sky was bright enough to show red. Venus was up there again, crazily shining down on the party. I broke down the scope while it was still cool, and turned in. This was my last night. Saturday Alas, I couldn't stay for the door prize drawing. I drove over to the scopes, packed them into the car, drove back to camp to pack that up, and gave my ticket to Ron, who was one of my scope neighbors and somewhat new to the hobby. I hope it won something for him. I had forgotten sunscreen and chapstick, and was grateful to get back into shade. It was a wonderful trip, and it probably rocked Saturday night, too. Thanks to everyone at the Table Mountain Star Party Association, and special mention to the coffee baristas - nicely done! The party was a fine show, we were comfortable, and the association obviously put in a heck of a lot of work to make this thing fly. Bravo! ... and until next year, clear skies!

Other Links about TMSP 2004
Jim Ehrmin's site	A collage of images, no text.
Anacortes Telescope & Wild Bird	A fine purveyor of astronomy and birding related merchandise also posted some pictures and text.

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