Okie-Tex Star Party

[Allan]

I just got home from the Okie-Tex star party. It is held in the pan handle of Oklahoma, near the border of New Mexico and Colorado. It's fairly remote, so the sky was dark, measuring about 21.7 on the SQM.

There was 501 people there during the week long event, making it the biggest star party I have been to. There was an amazing array of equipment to see, and the owners were more than happy to share some eyepiece time. The people at the party really made the event, and it was probably the best star party I have been to anywhere.

The who's who off amateur astronomy usually attend the big American star parties and it is a lot of fun to sit down with these people and talk astronomy, and then share some eyepiece time when it gets dark. Everyone I talked to was universally jealous of our southern sky and had it on their bucket list to come and see. For us lucky enough to live down here, I would recommend a visit to Okie-Tex should be on your bucket list.

[Allan]

This a beautiful AP180 on an AP1200 mount and pier. In the background is a 30" Starmaster. These two belong to Doug and Christina who run the Texas Star Party.

[Allan]

Takahashi's dominated the field, and rightfully so!

[Allan]

John Pratte's beautiful 32" dob with Lockwood mirror. Looking at Stephen's Quintet is like looking at the Leo Triplet in smaller telescopes.

[Allan]

This is close to the finest telescope I have ever observed with. It had a superb Mike Lockwood quartz mirror that produced incredible star points, rivalling the best apo's. All in a John Pratte dob that was as beautiful to look at as look through.

[Allan]

Within arms reach of each other were a 22", 24", 24", 30", 30" and 32" dobs. I was fortunate to spend most of the week with these guys and it was deep sky nirvana.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Sounds like Astro heaven

[RobF (Rob)]

Thanks for sharing pics

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Awesome, must have been wonderful, I'd love to go sometime...

Mike

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Those are some beautiful scopes.

We do have a great sky down here, but I'd still like to see what's up north, myself.

*Sigh*, one day...

[Allan]

Originally Posted by Shano592

Those are some beautiful scopes.

We do have a great sky down here, but I'd still like to see what's up north, myself.

*Sigh*, one day...

Apart from seeing things that are out of view for us, it's also nice to observe many objects high in the sky that are low in our horizon. Obviously they just look so much better. M33 was near overhead and fairly easy to see with direct vision, while that's not normally the case for me from Australia.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Thanks for the info and photos, sounds like it was a wonderful trip.
Looking forward to catching up with you again soon.