Stephen's Summer of 2005: 2005 SSSP

This year's Saskatchewan Summer Star Party (SSSP) was awesome. Starting on Thursday evening, we had three very good nights of observing, and a fourth on Sunday for stragglers until clouds started moving in at 1:00 AM (Monday morning). After the early-bird wiener roast and seeing plenty of old and new acquaintances, the skies started calling out "Look at me, seek me, touch me!" I found myself lost in stars and wonder. Not following any disciplined approach, i simply delighted in my friends in the sky and on the ground.

The following nights i was more disciplined. Sure i drank deeply of many, many gobulars, star clusters, doubles, galaxies and other astronomical fare. But i also took a disciplined approach to observing the Messiers (hoping to observe all 110 by next year) and several variable stars. Mars observing was not very good due to atmospheric turbulence.

We had some excellent speakers at the SSSP. Alan Dyer offered a brillant presentation on astrophotography, or actually astrovideography, and included highlights from this spring's solar eclipse in the South Pacific. Paul Campbell of Edmonton presented on his SID observation of SGR 1806-20, the magnestar that briefly ionized the Earth's ionosphere from 50,000 light years distance. It is amazing what an amateur observer can do with ingenuity and effort. Ivan Semeniuk gave the Father Lucien Kemble keynote talk, which he called "Seven Worlds in Seven Days" about the 7 celestial moving worlds of ancient times and our study of them today with our space technologies.

Larry Wood helping Donna-Lee May with her scope, Doug Billy's attention is diverted(?).