Sadly, this years ([2016] – now updated to 2022) Other Officially Unofficial Star Party was a complete bust. Between fickle weather and the differing needs of our secret membership, we were officially unable to gather. Also, the Loon Lake observing site is about to get a fully lit truck stop with charging stations for electric vehicles, so it looks like our grey zone dark sky is about to get a big bright downgrade. Time to start looking around. I’ve done a little scouting and found another possible location for next years OOUSP (pronounced ‘double-O, u-s-p‘) with an even lower horizon; warmer, dryer (no dew) evenings, and even less light pollution (black zone) than our original observing site:

Eastern horizon.

Below is a view of the southern horizon. Excellent low southern hemisphere observations.

To be discussed at our next meeting…