Logan Valley Star Party 2021 Summary

Weather and sky conditions:

    • Sunday, June 6, 2021: clear, perfect transparency, cold @ 2o F early morning

    • Monday, June 7, 2021: mostly cloudy, cold

    • Tuesday, June 8, 2021: mostly cloudy

    • Wednesday, June 9, 2021: mostly cloudy; pockets of clearing; some rain

    • Thursday, June 10, 2021: clear after 10 PM

    • Friday, June 11, 2021: mostly cloudy; pockets of clearing

    • Saturday, June 12, 2021: some night sky areas opened up

    • Sunday on, several stayed but I left. Not sure what the weather conditions were

    • No sky glow anywhere; could start serious viewing to the south and southeast around 9:30 PM; Polaris visible with finder scope around 8:30 PM for polar alignment


2021 attendees include: Arnesen, Chris and Valeska; Barnard, Charles; Bassett, Brad; Bassett, Roger; Benham, John; Gerritsen, Jeff; Henneghan, Sean; Hilmo, Wade; Horlings, Harry; Janssen, Scott and Sheila; Lentz, Tom; Lombardi, Troy; McDaniel, Bob and Sheila; McDaniel, Ryan and Erin Culpepper; Myers, Gary; Nelson, Nancy and Fender, Dan; Rendal, Ron and Cindi; Solimano, Paul.

I think that adds up to 24!

Thanks to everyone who helped out and contributed to the success of our star party.

In summary, the weather was not the best for LVSP this 2021. There were at least three nights which opened up for us for excellent viewing. Cloudy, partly cloudy and rain did hamper our viewing. However, we were fortunate in that it was cool and there was no wildfire smoke.

As I'm writing this, the northwest is experiencing a heat dome with 100 F + temperatures. Several wildfires are smoking out traditional star gazing areas. July's new moon I was going to check out a USFS lookout 20-miles south of Pomeroy, WA which shows promise as a possible July site. But presently (7-11-21) there's a large wildfire SE of that area, possibly moving onto the actual site. Maybe August.

Even though the USFS caps us as an organization at 75, I noticed the two clean vaults toilets ran out of TP. Hence one reason why we discouraged more attendees. However, it's open USFS land, anyone can show up anytime.

M31 - Gary Myers 72 mm refractor, Canon 350 DSP Milky Way - Tom Lentz Pixel 4XL - 4 min. exposure

Milky Way - Sean Henneghan

Nancy Nelson's Logan Valley Nature Photography: https://adobe.ly/2UYuqc2 18 beautiful photographs

Drone view of Logan Valley Star Party by Tom Lentz on June 10, 2021: https://youtu.be/D7aWXgyBG18