Rocky Mountain Star Stare 2018

Scott and I left the Explore Scientific office from Springdale on Monday June 11 around 2pm. We drove to the nice small town of Woodward OK about 300 miles from the office and stayed overnight at nearby Boiling Springs State Park. A very nice state park.

The next morning, we started on our way towards RMSS and ran into a little excitement on the way. In a small town called Grenville, outside Clayton NM, we hit what turned out to be a pretty major storm. We used the latest Weather Apps to watch the storm and saw hail in the distance approaching with 1.75" diameter. Now, when you travel with a nicely polished Airstream, that makes you nervous. As the storm approached, we saw the direction and expected path and waited in Grenville on a dirt road called Main Street. Our path took us a bit north and then towards the west and we saw our chance to skirt around the storm. We took off at a slow pace in heavy rains, but made our way around it safely and without damage to the Airstream or ourselves. On from there to the Trinidad Lake State Park in southern CO about 350 miles on day 2. On Wednesday, we arrived at the RMSS around 11am. About 710 miles total in 2.5 days. 

The 2018 RMSS was a total blast. The people were great, the location was very remote and the skies, although fighting clouds a few nights, was nice and dark. The event had great speakers and we had lots of interest in our products. We loaned EP's every night and had a bunch of people at our scopes looking at many cool objects every night. 

Due to threat of severe weather that afternoon, we packed up on Saturday morning and just as we finished loading, the rain started. Just in time! We made it back to the Boiling Springs State Park on Saturday night and finished the trip on Sunday. Back at the office. We unloaded our gear and had a nice pizza at MJ's that evening. 

Thanks to all those that attended and hung out with us. We made many new friends. Hope to see you again next year. 

Our first stop at Boiling Springs State Park on the way to RMSS:

On the road to RMSS in the middle of nowhere:

Our setup at RMMS: 

End of the event highlights:

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