by Jeffrey Gortatowsky
Very little left to say that has not already been said. Congratulations to all those that organized CalStar. This was my third and was as good or better than past ones as I was not the only person there from south of the Santa Barbara. :) It was fun to share observations with friends Paul Alsing, Bill Dean, Debbie Searle, Mark Lichtenburg, and Curt Wittenburg which I did many times over the course of the three nights. A happy family under the dark skies. And Kent Wallace had some interesting Pnebs as usual to try and see I and I appreciate him coming to get me to show them.
As to whether it was as dark as the prior two CalStar's, well my impression is that Thursday and Friday nights were not as dark as I remember. Some sort of haze or skyglow. Perhaps from solar activity?? Thursday, with the great square overhead I counted 8 stars in area 6 (Peg). That does not mean sharper eyed people would not have seen more. Just my crummy eyesight. Friday got darker as the night wore on and my friends also seemed to agree that more was going on then just the bright Winter stars rising. Saturday was (to me) obviously darker, with 10 stars (and that about all I have ever counted IIRC) in area 6 for an LM of about 6.2. Still, I have heard of others saying it was darker than that in prior years. So I could just be full of stellar doo doo. In fact more than one person said the MW had that Sugary appearance. I did not see it that way but did at the SSP. So who knows?
About the only thing I might have wished for would be that the BBQ was just an hour or two earlier.
Other than that, a great event with no hoopla. It tasted great, and was less filling. If there's a 4th, I'll be there 'like fer sure'.