Weasner's Mighty ETX Star Party

FOURTH MIGHTY ETX STAR PARTY

Last updated: 3 October 2005

The Fourth Mighty ETX Star Party is now History!!!!

We joined Nightfall in Borrego Springs, California, Friday, 30 September through Sunday, 2 October.

Oceanside Photo and Telescope (OPT) and Meade Instruments were once again sponsors. Thanks to OPT and Meade for their continued support!

Door Prizes Sponsors

Meade Instruments

Oceanside Photo and Telescope

The Case Place

Maxfactory

Thanks to these sponsors!!!

Here is a short report on the activities and a couple of astrophotographs I did using my ETX-90RA (the original "Mighty ETX").

Arrived at the hotel and saw some clouds. A bad omen...

About 15 people showed up for the Friday night "Welcome" session. We then set up some ETX telescopes in the ETX observing area. But the night was basically clouded out.

Saturday morning it was much clearer but there was this to the South:

But by Noon on Saturday the sky was nicely clear and several solar telescopes were set up. I had a Personal Solar Telescope piggybacked on my ETX-90RA.

The "Q&A" session was well attended with 40 ETX and non-ETX users in attendance.

The ETX-90AT "Grand Door Prize" was won by a young family with three young boys. They were all very excited! Afterwards, many of the attendees told me that they were thrilled that the family had won it! Saturday night they brought the ETX over to the observing area and I did some teaching on it to get them going.

Saturday evening ETX telescopes began getting set up in the ETX observing area about sunset:

I did some piggyback astrophotography using my Nikon D70 DSLR. Here are a couple of examples. M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda was a single 5 minute exposure, ISO 800, 200mm focal length, with tracking corrections being done through the ETX. Orion was a single 5 minute exposure, ISO 800, 55mm focal length, with no corrections made to tracking.

During the night, there was a lot of observing of Venus, DSOs, and Mars. Many of the ETX owners helped out many other ETX owners. It was fun to hear all the sharing going on!

I think it is appropriate to declare the Fourth Mighty ETX Star Party a success! Thanks to all the attendees and the folks from Nightfall for making it a success!!!

Previous Mighty ETX Star Parties

First Mighty ETX Star Party held in Borrego Springs, California, September 2001.

Second Mighty ETX Star Party held near Springfield, Illinois, October 2002.

Third Mighty ETX Star Party held in Litchfield Park, Arizona, July 2004.

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