Farm XIII with Doug Biernacki, July 2-4, 2025

This was a long-overdue trip to the Farm. Other astronomy trips, the moon, the clouds, the smoke, and life seem to conspire to keep us away.

It was our second two-night trip. The last such trip was near the winter solstice, and this one was near the summer solstice. The difference between two-night trips is remarkable. In the winter, the night was extremely cold, but the seeminly endless hours of darkness made for great imaging. The extremely short daytime period presented a challenge for getting ready for the follow-on night’s imaging session.

This time, the nights were extremely short, so not so great for collecting data. A late start, which I experienced, makes a significant cut into the sparse 5 1/2 available imaging hours. The intervening daytime period presented a different challange with seeminly endless hours with temperatures reaching into the mid-90s.

Venturing into Emmetsburg for dinner was a welcome break from the heat, and made the world a little bigger for any needed off-site support.

Even with the summer challenges, it was good to be at a dark sky site for the first time since early February to re-hone camping and astronomy skills.