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“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.
The Observers Challenge Program is returning for its third installment in 2009. This popular program presents you with a list of 30 objects to view while at TMSP. Observers who find and document their observations of 25 of the objects on the list will receive an Observers Award pin. Lists from previous years are also available and eligible to be awarded pins as well.
You can find the lists and more info on the Observers Challenge page.
Our thanks to Jim Bielaga of Aurora Astro Products for developing the observing lists.
Can’t survive a weekend without email and Internet access? TMSPA is happy to announce that Kelley Hogan from NomadISP will be attending as a Vendor at TMSP this year. Now you can bring your laptop or WiFi-capable phone and stay connected while on the mountain.
There is a fee for the service, with several options for the amount of access usage you desire. Typical cost is around $12 per day for full-time access. Payment is done online with a credit card when signing up for the service. Bandwidth usage restrictions may apply.
In addition to the WiFi service, Kelley will also be setting up a cell phone repeater, which we’re hoping will improve cell coverage on the mountain – perhaps no more need to find just the right spot to make that call!
Registration for TMSP 2009 remains open. We are closing in on our attendance limit of 700 persons, but there’s still time to get your registration submitted!
The Online Registration System will be taken off-line on or by July 8th. Registrations need to be mailed and postmarked no later than July 11th to be processed. If your registration comes in after that time, it will not be entered and you will need to check if on-site registration will be offered.
We will make the determination if on-site registration will be available and post info on the website by July 13th.
You will not be able to order meals or annual shirts / apparel items if registering on-site, so you need to get your registration in if you want those items. Shower tickets will be available on-site.
We’re pleased to announce that our featured guest speaker for 2009 will be Terence Dickinson. He will be making a presentation entitled “A 60mm Refractor in the Atacama, and Other Astro-Adventures”
Mr. Dickinson is the author 14 astronomy books, including “NightWatch,” one of the world’s best-selling stargazing guides, and co-author with Alan Dyer of “The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide.” A former planetarium staff astronomer, he was the first editor of Astronomy magazine. Following that for more than 20 years he was a professional science writer freelancing for Science Digest, Popular Mechanics, the Gannett news service, and CBC radio and the Canadian Discovery Channel. For the past 15 years he has been the editor of SkyNews, the Canadian magazine of astronomy and stargazing.
Check the Guest Speakers page for speaker schedules.
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