Back home after a lovely couple days at StarFest NYAAStarfest , the largest Canadian star party.

Some pictures and videos to give you a sense of the scene.

Folks camp out in a big field and have their telescopes or imaging cameras set up. People stargaze and socialize by night and attend talks and workshops by day. There is some sleeping involved, but in snatches…

Really a good way to meet the Canadian amateur astronomy community and meet old and new friends, people you’ve connected with online. There is so much socializing…

We got a couple clear hours Friday night during which I imaged some celestial objects I have been trying to get since last year, for one, this elusive multicolored structure called Rho Ophiuchi. Let’s see how those images fare.

I also had the treat of seeing by eye, some beautiful sky objects through telescopes of fellow astronomers. The coolest was the Veil nebula, this filamentous remnant of a star that exploded 10,000 years ago. It was really cool that it got more detailed the more I looked at it. My brain was stacking it live! And Saturn .

The keynote speaker on Saturday night was Dr. Sara Seager of MIT, professional astronomer, talking about discovering life in other solar systems by studying exoplanets. Other talks ranged from astronomy 101, to how to improve your astro and solar images, to backyard discovery of novel asteroid features.

Despite the fact that I wish it had been clearer for longer, it was the community around that made the experience. Looking forward to coming back next year, perhaps spending more nights there?