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Post by azstrider on Nov 10, 2023 6:34:02 GMT -6
Since my spouse works our plan was to make it to the DSSG for Friday and Saturday. I was looking forward to making new friends and learning more about deep sky viewing and astrophotography. Oh well, maybe next year.
A suggestion would be to have the the remaining door prize draws and include all registered individuals in the draw and wave the “must be present” requirement since the event has been truncated early.
Just a suggestion and hoping for clear skies next year.
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Post by bsimon615 on Nov 10, 2023 8:39:09 GMT -6
Thanks for your feedback. What we are doing is a hard decision that cannot please everyone. I would say that we will likely have maybe about 8 to 12 people still here on Friday night and maybe half of that on Saturday. It is raining now and the rain should intermittently continue thru the original end time for the Deep South. As said we can refund registration fees as they go mostly for door prize purchases and you and a few others do have the option of coming or not coming. Let me know if you still plan on attending with arrival before the start of the door prize drawing today (about 12:30 pm on Friday) and you can collect your door prize ticket.
We only have a few who have not arrived yet and we do not want to penalize the large number of attendees who will be leaving today by keeping the main door prize drawing on Saturday. Most are leaving early for a very legitimate reason.
Barry Simon
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Post by azstrider on Nov 12, 2023 9:24:50 GMT -6
Thank you Barry. I choose to leave our registration fees in the club coffers to help with future events and we hope for the opportunity to attend next year.
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Post by bsimon615 on Nov 12, 2023 11:33:29 GMT -6
Thank you very much, that is quite generous.
One other opportunity that we have with the White Horse Retreat Center is the possibility of doing more "star gazing" at White Horse as weather conditions permit. This benefits both any amateur astronomer as well as White Horse.
We can create a contact list, or just do a posting on this site when it looks like an opportunity exists.
Here is a hypothetical scenario so that everyone has a clear idea of what I envision -
First, likely windows to do this (little or no Moon interference), not counting dates already set for either the Deep South Star Gaze or the Spring Scrimmage in all of 2024 will be:
Jan 12-13, Feb 9-10, Mar 8-9, Apr 5-6, May 10-11, Jun 7-8, Jul 5-6, Aug 2-3 & 30-31, no September, Oct 4-5, Nov 29-30, and Dec 27-28
If the forecast, a few days out is looking favorable, others might see this too, and I will post asking for replies to see who is interested. If interest is there we can contact "White Horse" (Carol) to see if there is a conflict with the schedule there. (Typically not)
If just a few people, let's say 3 to 6, we may still be able to get one bunk room, if more, well then more would be available to us. The advantage of setting something up with just a few days notice is we know what the weather should be doing. Not at all like setting dates a year or more out. Sure there will be a cost, but you would be paying for more of a sure thing.
I know this may conflict with the use of the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society Observing Site (SPMOS), but we may not have that site much longer as the owners do want to sell it. Additionally the skies are darker at White Horse and we do have lower horizons plus more ammenities including running water. It is an option and more than half of our recent DSSG attendees are not PAS members.
Comments/suggestions appreciated.
Barry Simon
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