Oregon Star Party History Main Page

Osp '88, '89, '90, and '91 were held on Steens Mountain in extreme Southeastern Oregon, one of the most remote and darkest sky locations in the entire United States! "Visibility" at Steens ranks among the highest still left in the United States (see page bottom for facts)!..... Steens Mountain rises in Harney County, near the Nevada border... From 1992 onward, we have held OSP in the Ochoco Mountains near Prineville, Oregon, not nearly so high and remote, but still very dark skies.

To the left is the first official OSP Group Photo. It is from the 1989 event. We were tiny and intimate back then.....Our 1989 Group Photo shows 11 Stalwart Astro parents and kids relaxing at our observing site, a 7,400 ft high dry lake bed near Fish Lake.......... OSP Director Chuck and his wife Judy are on the far right. Author's Son Russ is on the far left. The OSP Committee members at that time were only four: myself, Chuck, Judy, and Candace. Find pictures of OSP 88 on the next page....For a complete story on "Big Red," the classy Coulter 10-inch Dob seen on the picture's left side,click here. Click here to see some classic OSP labels on Big Red!

Typical OSP late afternoon temperature and humidity are ideal! Your optics stay dry at our 5,000 ft. site in the Ochoco Mountains of Central Oregon! Sunburn Risk at OSP is high even though we typically hold our event a full two months after Summer Solistice.

OSP UVB levels-- Beware! UV intensity at OSP is usually much higher than you are accustomed to! 2006 UVB readings at OSP included 356 at solar zenith on Saturday, and already a strong 261 by 10:30am in the morning on Sunday. For comparison, the zenith reading on Monday in Canby (near Portland) was a full 100 points lower, at only 255.... And at OSP 2008, even higher readings were obtained, a blistering 390, despite the date of August 30th! This 390 reading is 140 points higher than I could coax out of my meter during the next few days after OSP at my home in Olympia, Washington! For a full discussion of UVB levels and research in Oregon, click here. In relation to the high elevation of OSP, pay special attention to the section detailing late-season UVB readings at the comparable elevation of Timberline Lodge.

Click this link to Order "The Oregon Weather Book" by George Taylor. Also consider the companion volume which you will see listed called "The Climate of Oregon," also by George Taylor, Oregon State Climatologist...... this photographer's images appear on the front covers of both books.

Stairway to Heaven

Lovers of the out-of-doors delight in distant panoramas, but many have noticed with disappointment that days with crisp, clean air and fine distant panoramas are rarer and rarer all across the U.S...... historical accounts of early Oregon often mention the pleasing views of very distant mountain peaks available even from within the lowlands of the Willamette Valley, while early mountaineer's accounts mention feats of distant vision that astound the climbers of today, and which may never be rivalled again...... A good example are reports from such high points in Central Oregon as Paulina Peak that the major peaks from Oregon, California and Washington were all visible at one time, the minimum distance involved being 180 miles from 8,000 ft. Paulina Peak to 14,000 ft. Mt. Shasta in California, and 160 miles to 12,000 ft. Mt. Adams in Washington. (see below)

"Typical visual range in the eastern U.S. is 15 to 30 miles, or about one-third of what it would be without human caused air pollution. In the West, the typical visual range is 60 to 90 miles, or about one-half of the visual range under natural conditions. Haze diminishes the natural visual range.

Haze is caused by fine particles that scatter and absorb light before it reaches the observer. As the number of fine particles increases, more light is absorbed and scattered, resulting in less clarity, color, and visual range." Source: Official Dept. of Agriculture Site: http://www.fsvisimages.com/viscause.html

Recently I came upon a really evocative article about the light pollution problem facing our World as a whole. The writer, Verlyn Klinkenborg, in this November 2008 National Geographic article, wrote:

"In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze that mirrors our fear of dark and resembles the urban glow of dystopian science fiction. We've grown so used to this pervavsive orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night - dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadows on Earth - is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost. And yet above the city's pale ceiling, utterly undiminished by the light we waste - a bright shoal of stars and planets and galaxies, shining in seemingly infinite darkness."