SSSP 2025

Last week I attended the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party in Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan. I wanted to go and set up my tent with my big rig and have some quality time under good skies to enjoy some deep space imaging.

To read the SSSP Facebook page, you would believe that all was nothing short of spectacular, and I will say that if all of your imaging is being done with a Seestar S50, it was decent. My experience with my “big rig” was a bit different.

I arrive on Tuesday evening, August 19^th to beautiful blue skies – absolutely cloudless in fact. I parked and assembled my tent, installed my EQ6 and Hyperstar 8 and had it all set up. Then near dark, the sky in the southwest began to darken and lightning appeared. A check of doppler radar showed a storm cell moving directly at us. But before we went to bed, it did appear to clear and the wind was up just a bit. I decided to remove the camera and Hyperstar and bundle the OTA with my scope cover and I am glad that I did.  The peace would not hold,

At 2 AM I was awakened to intense lightning and a wild windstorm with some rain coming down. I peered out the window of my van at my tent and under the lightning flashes I could not see the roof, only walls. I was thinking the roof had been torn off in the rain, so I put on shoes and grabbed a flashlight and went out to discover that the poles had come out of the top pockets, the roof was still there but was dished in and was being held by stretch straps and clips. Some water would get into the tent but everything would be fine. I mopped out the tent with a towel the next morning.

Wednesday evening was the same thing. It came in and clouded over after a beautiful day. And the wind came up.

Thursday evening we went to the BBQ. When we got out of the BBQ, we could tell it was going to be a great night, so I set up my S50, removed the roof from my tent and set out to image the Cocoon Nebula IC5146. I shot a total of 180 subs, 3 full hours worth before I shut it down as the wind came up. The wind was enough to shut it all down and it got stronger and even on into the next morning.

Friday morning we woke up to clouds, wind and just generally ugly weather but it did begin to clear off in the afternoon just in time for our beef on a bun gathering of friends. Friday night looked like it would be a winner. And when I uncovered my tent and started out, there were signs. First, I had issues with focus – and the culprit was dew. We were very close to the dew point and by midnight, although it was perfectly clear, everything was soaking wet. I did manage to shoot 120 subs – some 2 hours worth on NGC 7023 – the Iris Nebula. But yet again I was shut down by the elements. You might get away with a more forgiving setup, but the big rig pretty much needs to be dew free to have its way proper.

Saturday morning, I got up and started packing up. I was always intending to leave Saturday due to domestic responsibilities at home. I stayed for the swap tables, bought a couple of items and headed home. When I got home, I unpacked, dried, cleaned, stored, washed, cut grass, went for parts to mount the dovetail to my new solar scope, and I ate. I was hungry and dehydrated when I finally made it home. People tell me the weather was nice on Saturday night, and I had intended to do astronomy at home, but I fell asleep before sunset and woke up at 6:30 Am the next day, a new record for me.

It was worth it. Had a lot of fun, met a lot of interesting people, avoided every presentation and just focused on the people, the venue and the hobby. I think that is my happy point.