[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.