August New Moon

This was my first time at Piney Woods, a dark sky retreat site for members of the Seattle Astronomical Society. Piney Woods is located near Goldendale. Piney Woods sits on a transition zone from light to dark blue on the light pollution map from D. Lorenz. I brought my 17.5" f/3.4. This was the first time I was in dark skies with the 17.5" since I finished it back in June/July. I also brought the 8" but it did not see much use- the 17.5" f/3.4 did. 

Alan heads up the SAS, and coordinates Piney Wood activities. Alan is super nice, as are all the members that I met at Piney Woods. Kim, who had his 17.5" set up next to me, and his friend were very friendly and we shared in the views together, as did Alan. A few other members looked through my scope but I did not get a chance to look through other people scopes. Next time! In the meantime, you can find my sketch of the Veil that I made at Piney Woods in the nebula sub-section of the Piney Woods page on here. Here are pictures of my trip, including an RV fire that I encountered en route to Piney Woods. 

Alan of SAS took some photos of me sketching the Veil, which I've included in the pictures section below. Thanks Alan! 

The original sketch of the Veil I made at Piney Wood is being donated to SAS to raise proceeds for SAS. Cool! I'm honored to donate my sketch of the Veil, as I consider it one of my finest works. 

I set up my scope next to another 17.5", owned by Kim. He was fascinated with how the PiFinder worked on my scope, and how I had it connected to my tablet via SkySafari 7 Pro. I had him hold the tablet while I pointed the scope using the PiFinder on the scope, and he could see where I was pointing the scope by looking at the tablet screen! Last I heard, Kim was going to talk his wife into letting him buy a PiFinder. :-)