Stellar Skies trip report – April 11, 2018

Posted on April 16, 2018

After a long absence I finally made it back to Stellar Skies. This time I brought along my friends, David and Matt. While David and I drove from Austin, Matt flew he and his dog Jet.

First, a much needed refueling stop at Cooper’s. 

Then a quick stop to LLano airport- waiting for Matt and Jet to land

Landing

…and parked

And then we all continue on to Stellar Skies on a beautiful 80F sunny day.

I am happy to report, the observatory was in a good shape. In fact, after a short vacuuming session, there was not much to do but wait for night fall.

In meantime, we’ll drone.

Hello Stellar Skies… looking good

Airing out the observatory 🙂

Here’s a video compilation of all the fly-overs (press HD and full screen for a better experience)

Later in the evening we dropped by Charlie’s who let us visit his legendary scope.

And then we waited more for the night to come….

Well, guess who showed up? Jarret!!! See his truck?

Jarret and Charlie took my friends for a tour.

Then Jarret graciously offered a viewing session. So we got to work.

The sunset was spectacular

Jarret’s scoped was ready to reveal the skies.

David reveling in awe.I’m happy to say, David is now a convert and hopefully will be joining Stellar Skies as a new member soon!

Jarret and his scope

As for my observatory. I polar aligned the scope and ran a new 600 point model.

I was ready for some action.

A few frames later, and M101 was ready to be shown in all its glory.Clear skies everyone. 🙂