Hill Country State Natural Area- Monday Night Astronomy

While most guys are watching Monday Night football a fellow astronomer and i headed out to Hill Country State Natural Area (HCSNA). Near Bandera, Texas. Our local astronomy group had an event planned that evening with a local school but they canceled around 2 pm. My Monday was a stressful one and I really wanted to get out and do some star gazing. Rick and I headed out around 6 pm and arrived at HCSNA about 30 minutes later.

I took my 10" Coulter Dobsonain along (a.k.a. Big Red). Rick had is new Celestron 20x80s and his Binocular Chair (Couch Potato Telescope). The viewing wasn't all that great but there was some moisture in the air. In about 30 minutes my Telescope's telrad was dewy so I packed it up. I sat for a while just looking up at the sky while I ate my subway sandwich my wife generiously bought for me before I took off for HCSNA.

It is amazing how peaceful the sky can be when you have had a stressful day. Today might be even more emotionally stressful as I've some some private issues going on medically. It is nice knowing that the stars will be there to comfort those who look up.

Eventually, I got my 10x50s out and did some poking around. Eventually Rick let me try out his Binocular chair and 20x80s. I have to say I need more practice using that bino chair I found it difficult to use and find objects.

On the way out to HCSNA we dicussed the possibility of rebuilding my Lightbridge base like Rick's base for his. I've got some minor improvements that we might try to implement.