Posts Made By: Jim Celebucki

I spoke to Judy from Astrosystems at the Nebraska star party, and she plans to attend both Prairie Skies and Astrofest.

Jim

I did make it to Astrofest for Friday night, after judging it to be the better night for weather prospects. Astrofest is now the no-frills star party. When you check in, you get a badge and a couple door prize tickets. No packet, no schedule of events, nada. We got there around 5:30-6 and there were maybe a hundred people. Vana's served no meals, but you could go in to the store (the one with the halloween costumes) and buy a hot dog or sandwich and a drink, but even the glass-covered counter with all the candy-by-the-pound was empty. No shower truck, no dining tent (there were a few tables next to the store). Before dark they gave away a few door prizes; no big-ticket items. This year they did have hot chocolate, coffee and doughnuts Friday night (with new donuts on Saturday morning) and they gave away free hot dogs to pre-registrants at noon on Saturday.

Friday night there were lots of clouds (and a lightning storm that passed to the south running due east), but also periods of partial clearing and one good 60-90 minute period around 1 or 2 AM where the whole sky was clear. Partly because of the clouds, there was a huge glow to the east from Kankakee, and although they said the quarry would turn out its lights, there still seemed to be a glow in the southeast. By scrambling to take advantage of the clear areas, we managed to get views of most of the usual summer DSOs, but by 3 AM it was totally cloudy and the satellite views gave little hope of that changing.

Saturday morning was fairly clear, but by noon the clouds were rolling in and the maps and forecast were pretty bleak, so we packed up and went home. Later I checked the weather maps, and it seemed that they had some rain and cloudy skies until at least 1:30 or 2 AM.

There were several vendors, including 20/20 and there was free wi-fi, including a few laptops set up in a tent.