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TMSPA would like to wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
We would also like to remind you that the dates for the 2010 Table Mountain Star Party will be August 12th through August 14th. Please mark your calendars for those dates if you are planning on joining us on the mountain this year.
Registration for TMSP 2010 should open in early to mid-May and we will make an announcement here on the Weblog once the date for the opening of registration is set, as well as posting that info on the TMSPA website.
-The TMSPA Staff
As of the time of above, we still have space available for On-Site Registrations.
As we celebrate to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, some of you who were around then might remember that phrase being transmitted from the Apollo spacecraft as they transited the far side of the Moon and lost radio communication. “LOS” was one of the plethora of acronyms used, and meant “Loss of Signal”.
We are going to experience our own LOS. The majority of TMSPA Directors are now either on the mountain or in-transit. Emails sent to tmspa.com addresses will not be received until after the event.
We will have limited connectivity on the mountain starting on Thursday, thanks to NomadISP and their WiFi Internet service, but we will not be actively monitoring or responding to emails. We will post critical announcements to this Weblog and website as necessary. If you are planning on coming and registering on-site, check here and the TMSPA website for those updates.
-TMSPA Staff
Okay, you’ve been sitting on the fence waiting to see what the weather was going to be like (and it is looking good) and have decided to make the trip to Table Mountain.
Here are some tips if you are planning on coming to TMSP and registering on-site:
Check this Weblog and TMSPA website – We will try to post an update here on Thursday with any updates on vehicle size limits and attendee capacity. Large RV spots are going to be limited, and we will close registration when we reach our capacity of 700 persons.
Arrive Early – Wednesday and Thursday are our largest projected arrival days for attendees. 85% of the registered attendees plan on being on-site by Thursday.
Gate Hours – The main gate and Registration Tent open and 9AM and close at 8PM.
Come Prepared – Download, print and fill out the On-Site Registration Form from the TMSPA website and bring it with you. Remember that we will only accept cash and check payments for on-site registrations.
Be Patient – If you arrive on Wednesday or Thursday, expect there to be a line at the Registration Tent. Have your registration form and payment ready. Pull over as far as possible to the right side of the road as you approach the Registration Tent and follow the directions of the parking staff.
We expect Thursday afternoon and evening to be the busiest time for on-site registration.
See you on the mountain!
-TMSPA Staff
“Seattle weathermen are half-right, 20% of the time.”
So goes the joke anyway.
Putting that skepticism aside, the current long-range weather forecasts for the week of Table Mountain Star Party look very promising, with a forecast of sunny and warm days and relatively mild nights. Ellensburg is forecast to have temperatures in the upper 80’s to low/mid 90’s or better from Tuesday the 21st onwards through the weekend.
The general rule-of-thumb for TMSP is to take around 15 degrees off of the temperatures for Ellensburg and that’s what we get up on the mountain. That’s equating to daytime temps in the 70’s on the hill – almost ideal daytime conditions.
Nighttime temps will be mildly cool – perhaps dipping into the low 40’s early in the week and increasing into the upper 40’s and low 50’s later on. That’s pretty typical TMSP nights.
As always, pack for all weather conditions – from cold to hot – as the weather is still unpredictable.
UPDATE – 7/15/09, 11:30PM PST
Our testing shows that the TMSPA email servers are back up and functioning normally. Our hosting provider is in the process of upgrading our email system which apparently caused the earlier problems. If you encounter an issue with sending emails to the tmspa.com domain, please be patient and try sending again.
-The TMSPA Staff
7/15/09, 1:30PM PST
TMSPA is currently experiencing difficulties with our email servers. If you have sent an email to someone in the tmspa.com domain and received delivery error messages, please try re-sending your message to our Information account.
We will post an update here when the mail server issues are resolved, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
-The TMSPA Staff
TMSP still has room and will be accepting On-Site Registrations this year.
More information and the On-Site Registration Form can be found on the Registration Page of the TMSPA website.
We will only accept On-Site Registrations until we reach our limit of 700 attendees. Arrive as early as possible to avoid being turned away.
Registration for TMSP 2009 has been suspended effective July 8th.
We will continue to accept registrations in the mail with postmarks dated no later that July 11th. Registrations dated after July 11th may not be accepted and processed.
TMSPA will make a determination as to whether on-site registration will be offered this year and post that information here as well on the main TMSPA Website no later than July 13th. If we do determine that on-site registration will be offered this year, we will post a revised Reigstration Form that you can fill out and bring with you to the mountain. (We will have forms on the mountain for you as well.)
Please note that on-site registration will not offer the purchase of our annual apparel items or meals.
If on-site registration is offered, we will only accept arriving parties arriving until we reach our limit of 700 attendees. If you are planning on waiting and registering on-site, arrive as early as possible to avoid being turned away.
As a general safety precaution, TMSPA Policy prohibits fires or the use of any cooking source that creates hot coals or ashes such as barbecues with charcoal briquettes due the danger of a fire on the site.
That policy is now backed up with the following announcement from the US Forest Service:
Due to high temperatures and increasing fire danger, effective on Friday, July 3, 2009, campfires are prohibited on National Forest lands within Chelan County (Chelan, Entiat and Wenatchee River Ranger Districts). A campfire restriction means that wood and charcoal fires are allowed only in designated campgrounds with fire rings, some classified Wilderness areas and specially designated sites. Pressurized liquid gas stoves are still allowed, but briquette fires are not.
As the hot, dry weather continues in Eastern Washington as forecast, it is reasonable to predict that the fire ban will be expanded to other regions such as Kititas County as well. So please, for the safety of your fellow stargazers, make sure that you use a propane or white-gas cookstove as your only cooking heat source.
More information on TMSPA Rules can be found on the Rules & Regs Page.
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