Thoughts on TSP
Just got home tonight after a longish nearly 12 hour drive. Was doing fine until I hit San Antonio. Lost nearly an hour taking my Anderson Loop shortcut. Lots of traffic for a Saturday afternoon. After rejoining interstate 10 it seems all of the 18 wheeler drivers insisted on driving side by side doing well under the speed limit. Made for a very slow drive into Houston.
Anyways, had a very good trip with 5 straight nights of good conditions. Not great as the humidity was spiking a bit at night and a slight but persistent haze was noticeable most of the week looking at the distant mountains. SQML probably averages 21.75 for the better part of the week. The lights from the oil fields to the north were for the most part really faint. Probably due to the haze.
For the most part seeing was decent. No problem going to 700x when needed.
It was very dry and dusty. Next level type dust. Like talcum powder. Its in everything.
I thought we were going to make it through the week without a monster dust devil. Was not to be. A giant came through Thursday afternoon on the upper field and knocked over a few scopes. Hopefully no damage was done. Tie your scopes down people, don't leave your dobs pointed up!
For the most part the talks were fine but it seemed a lot of last minute schedule changes were happening. A bit disorganized. TSP needs to have a dedicated speaker coordinator once more. The a/c in the room barely worked and it was very warm inside.
Internet was great this year. Cell phone coverage was much better then previous years. At least for my AT&T phone.
The food was fine with a few exceptions, like the hamburgers and hotdogs. Not very good. The pork chops were a it dry but edible. The BBQ was great as was the roast beef. The salad bar was quite good, fresh and plentiful.
TSP (and the Ranch) needs to rethink the 7 day minimum. I was the only resident in my row of hotel rooms for most of the week. I did have some neighbors come in on Thursday. Not sure if they paid for the whole week or were allowed a partial week. A lot of the bunkhouses were nearly empty. Seems to me a hotel oriented business would prefer have paying customers, if only for a day or two, rather then having rooms sit empty making 0 dollars for the week. But that's me.
As usual the Give-a-way took to long with to many of the same things. I, for one, am tired of hearing Bob's Knobs. But the winners had fun. I did win a Celestron UHC filter!
Volunteering was fine, but I felt useless. I had "Merchandise (T-shirts and such)" duty as well as gate duty on Thursday. Four of us sitting out in the heat, for three hours, waving people through. If TSP insist we guard the entrance it seems they could schedule two people for an hour. No need for four people for three hours. Same for the merchandise table. Two would suffice.
Need to get rid of the darned wrist bands. I wanted to rip mine off after a few minutes. Not sure why these are needed. Who cares if someone from the local community comes in for a visit. I have been there during other large events and no one is wearing a wrist band.
All in all, despite the little pains, I had a very good time and will go again next year. Excluding fuel I only spent around $300 the entire week. $160 of that was at the McDonald gift shop!
Karl did a fantastic job and I thank him for putting on a very good Star Party. Thank you Karl! But TSP needs to listen to folks gripes and address what prevented people from attending in the first place.
I also want to thank the volunteers that came out early to set up the power cords and room blackout. Great job folks!
Hopefully next year we can get back to a healthy 400+ attendees!
