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[patrickm]

Both food groups! I vote Aye!

[RobbW]

Drink up me hearties, yo ho!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

But Robb...

You still haven't installed the cup holders on your astro-buggy.

[RobbW]

Cup holders?! That's nothin'. I'm waiting for the parts to arrive so I can install the mini-fridge and microwave station! I don't want to be confined to mere drinks. Sometimes I need a hot and spicy burrito in the middle of an observing session, too!

Sorry for the cheesy pirate reference. I'm just getting into character for Pirate Night on my upcoming Disney cruise. I'm going all out with a full-fledged Capt'n Jack Sparrow costume!

[erikruud]

Rob, you are going to need a bigger deep cycle battery then. I have a 125ah battery in my camper.

As for cup holders, check this out.
www.instructables.com/id/The-telescope-utility-belt/step3/putting-it-all-together/

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Duct tape and cheese in a can is God's gift to man.

[RobbW]

Alright, alright, already. Here are the pics I have from the Saint Charles star party. Remember, it was dark. Much darker than down by the Adler. So I didn't have those light bombs to help illuminate the scenes. Also, my P&S digicam does not do well in low light. I had it maxed out on all its exposure settings, but I still could not get a decent shot of anything (also explains why everything is so grainy). I really wish I had brought my "big" DSLR camera. That would have taken care of all my problems, but I didn't have any batteries charged and I didn't have a tripod heavy enough to hold a bigger camera. I never even thought to bring out my camera until much later in the session after the crowds had died down a bit. Too bad, it would have been cool to get a shot showing the throngs of people lining up at our scopes. While some CA events draw larger numbers, those counts are usually total counts throughout the whole session. It seemed like we had all our crowds all at one time. Sweet, but very busy.

Without further ado, PICS:


First shot after running to get my cam out of the car. Crowds had died down a bit and no one looking through my scope at the moment. Folks were just kind of mingling and talking about astro stuff.




An attempted shot of a father and son in front of my scope. This is Eric and Drake. Like I said, it was just very dark and my cam don't do dark, at least not with the flash. I didn't want to use flash and destroy everyone's dark-adapted eyes.




I ran over and took a couple shots of Rich's set up. He still had a line as he was showing off Jupiter. I tried to show different objects in my scope than what others were showing. So, if Rich had Jupiter in his, I was probably showing the Double Cluster or ET Cluster, just to give folks variety.




Finally, a real action shot with eyes to the scope!




Another amateur astronomer's beastly 23" Dobsonian drew quite a crowd just from its sheer size. It dwarfed all those around!




More folks having a good time just talking about our night skies.




Yes, that's a self portrait. With the moon so bright that night, I put my binoviewers on the scope and was trying to get a pic of me with my eyes all lit up from the moonlight coming through the binos. Didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned. Stupid digicam!




Some surrounding community oohed and awed the crowd with its fireworks display. Nobody could really pinpoint whose fireworks they were, though. I'll just assume it was St. Charles for the Scarecrow Fest.




Anyway, that's what I have. You can all stop holding your breath now!