Almost Heaven Star Party with Doug Biernacki from August 30 to September 3, 2024

Arrived at 1045 with check in and getting parked flowing smoothly. Setting up the camper and astronomy equipment in the afternoon heat was a challenge for me. I managed to get in a brief nap, which helped.

Power was a challenge for this star party. My power for the past two years at Winter Star Party and at The Farm has been to run a generator instead of using batteries. Since running a generator at night is not permitted, I would be back on batteries, which could be charged during the afternoons.

Conditions were not looking too good for the first night, but then we received word that the conditions up until midnight looked pretty good, and we took advantage of it.

The second and third nights were a complete cloud out, so no imaging was done. On the afternoon of the second day we were visited by three successive thunderstorms. One was moderately severe.

The fourth, and last, day was forecast for clouds to clear out by noon, and the night sky promised to be exceptional, and it was. Since I had a good polar alignment and PHD2 calibration from the first night, startup was a breeze.

The imaging session went well, and I retired at a decent time. I woke up to find that the the session had not closed down properly due to batteries running out.

AHSP is a great venue, and we resolved to return on 2025. Insufficent battery capacity, and barely enough generator time to recharge the batteries is an issue that will require attention before next year.