"The Cedar Key Star Party February 2004"

The Cedar Key Star Party is a combination Star Party & Vacation.  Instead of camping out there are plenty of luxury accommodations available. Alan and I shared a condo at "The Island Place".

Part of the daily activities are public Solar viewing sessions at the local Marine Research Station. Here are a few shots that include Alan with his 6" AP and Coronado H-Alpha solar filter.

Additional public sessions and talks took place at the local Museum. Relatively warm weather and terrific seeing drew decent crowds.  Shades of BAA public nights!

The private observing site was located at "Shell Mound".  This is an excellent dark sky site a few miles from Cedar Key. It is a combination of beach, swamp and tropical jungle. An interesting place!?

This night offered some of the best seeing any of us has ever experienced. You could really push the magnification of your scope to the extreme.

Alan spends some quality time with his MAC to do some image processing.

Here are the fruits of his labors. Great job Alan!

This is a walking tour of Cedar Key.  It's laid back lifestyle and gulf side location makes it a great place for astronomy and a vacation get away. To find out more click here CKSP.

It's a  picturesque community, located on the Gulf Coast of Florida near Gainesville.

Pelicans are plentiful and provide a lot of entertainment.  Here is one getting a fishing hook removed by the "Pelican Man". 

Finally, I saw this break in the clouds and it reminded me of the "North American Nebula", what do you think?