I arrived at the BFSP on Tuesday to take advantage of the wonderful clear skies that were in the forecast. The first couple of nights had lots of dew and I had to cut my imaging sessions short because of a faulty connection with my dew heater. Thanks to Steve I was covered for the other nights. Not one single night of the star party was completely clouded out so I was able to make good use of the time there.

There were two experienced sketchers nearby that gave me a few tools and tips to set me on my way to try my hand at sketching while my camera was doing it’s thing. Below are my best sketches that I scanned and inverted 🙂 I was really impressed at how I was actually able to pick out more detail in the eyepiece than ever before. Note: The background of the scan came out a little strange.

12″ LB, 26mm eyepiece..

M27

M17 including eyepiece aberations LOL

One morning Jackie, John and I got up early to take pictures of a spectacular sunrise over an open field across the road.

I was also able to capture a few familiar and not so familiar deep sky objects.

Iris nebula in Cepheus

M45 Pleiades star cluster

It was great meeting many fellow Canadian amateur astronomers… including two nice guys, Philip and Robert from the Niagara RASC. I also bumped into a few friends from the Cloudy Nights forum and some York University Astronomy Club council members. We all shared thoughts on weather, equipment, observing and most importantly astrophotography 🙂

I packed up to leave Sunday bright and early immediately following a few solid hours of imaging and a beautiful misty sunrise. Looking back I would have to say that this star party was one of the best that I have been to. With the company of HAA friends the time spent there was even better.

KerryLH