Star Parties

The Oregon Star Party was first held in 1988 in the far south eastern corner of Oregon in the Steens Mountains. The OSP was relocated to the Indian Trail Springs location in 1991. On Wednesday the 27th I drove up to OSP following behind Dean Kelly. We had a long drive as we had to take a detour around the forest fires near Sisters & Mt Jefferson.	Driving up to OSP on 8/27/03 Dean Kelly & I stopped to take pictures of the forest fire burning near Santiam Junction Highway 22/20 We had to detour around the fire to reach the OSP site.	Another picture of the fire. The fire was burning within a half mile of the Highway 22/20 Junction. As of 8/31/03 the fires (Booth & Bear Butte) has burned 49,130 acres, and is 40% contained.	ODOT facility near Santiam Junction. The Forest Service was back-burning near Hoo-Doo Ski Resort just a few miles west of this area. (They did save the ski resort!)
View looking NW towards Portland, from my tent!	First night at OSP 8/27/03. There were already several hundred people set up !	My 10" Dob "Earl II" ready for a night of viewing! The sunsets were spectacular due to the forest fires burning near Sisters & Mt Jefferson wilderness area.	Viewing at OSP this year was fantastic, in spite of the forest fires. On the first night 8/27/03 everyone enjoyed spectacular views of Mars. Using Dean Kelly's 8" scope & my 10" scope we enjoyed a wonderful first night at OSP. The seeing was so good that images of Mars through the eyepiece looked like a picture! The detail of the surface features of Mars was amazing! I was able to add a number of Messier objects to my observing log during the OSP!

Each year at the Oregon Star Party a "Walk-about", is held. Mel Bartels leads the activity having selected several telescopes to show to the OSP crowd. Each owner of the telescope describes the features and the processes in building their telescopes. This year 7 telescopes were chosen for the walk-about.	This was the first telescope featured in the walk-about. This is Joe Rothman's "The Week Scope", it took him a week to build it before the OSP!	Another view of the scope.	Chuck Dethloff (OSP President & Founder) talks about his wife Judy's' 16" telescope that was one of the telescopes featured in the Walk-about.
Chuck explains the front mounted fan features.	Bruce Sayers 22" Newtonian reflector binoculars! Mirrors are from Swayze optics.	Click here to see page 2 Oregon Star Party pictures (Mel Bartels & Dan Gray's Telescopes)
Photos from the Mt Bachelor Star Party July 31-Aug 2 2003	20" RC OGS Telescope Sunriver Observatory	Sunriver Solar viewing Celestron Telescope	Dean Kelly preparing to take a solar image
Sun July 31, 2003 Sunriver Observatory. Olympus 2040.	Mt. Bachelor Sunrise Lodge	Looking West towards Broken Top	Moon setting over Mt. Bachelor. July 31, 2003
First Lunar image with my 10" Dob 26mm Celestron eyepiece. July 31, 2003	Crescent Moon over Mt Bachelor July 31, 2003 !0" Dob Celestron 26mm eyepiece.	A cool binocular mount	Looking West towards Broken Top
Mt Bachelor	Broken Top	Clouds moving in	Mt Bachelor in the clouds
John Dobson Telescope making class, lecture & Star Party held at Western Oregon University July 2003	Mr. Dobson presented his lecture on Cosmology	Mr. Dobson states, "I am allergic to the Big Bang"!	Q & A time with Mr. Dobson
Members of the class and the public held a star party at WOU after Mr. Dobson's lecture.	NS45 member Stephanie Barth brought her 10" telescope she built in the Dobson class held in 2000	Garth Eliason's 8" telescope.	John talking with star party guests.
Star Party Falls City 2001. First time out with my Meade DS-127 scope!	I love my Meade scope!	I could stay up all night! Where's my coffee mug?	Star party CLI of Willamette University near Jefferson, OR
Members of NS45 getting the scopes ready for a night of viewing. This is in a Llama pasture!	View looking NE towards the Willamette Valley	Dean Kelly & a member of CLI trying to figure out one of those fancy cameras!	Setting up for a night of stargazing.
Okay who moved my eyepiece?