ESP 2023 Conditions

[Will Young]

Happy Saturday, y’all!

It’s a beautiful day here at the XBar Ranch! It’s 71 degrees and the skies are beautifully clear!

Just a heads up for those of you coming in on Intersate 10. West of Sonora there is major road construction happening. They are using pilot cars and stopping traffic for long periods.

A possible option to save some time is to leave I-10 at Sonora and ride the North Sevice Road all the way to FM 2129. I hope this helps and we will see you all when you get here! Safe travels!

-Will

[Will Young]

Tuesday’s Field Report
Day 2 here at ESP is upon us. Yesterday astronomers arrived and started setting up shop for the week on the main field and the lodge field.

The skies started out messy as darkness fell but around midnight things opened up and were actually pretty clear until about 3:30am when I finally called it a night. It seemed like a few people on the main field set alarms and woke up to see if the skies had cleared and got some late night stargazing in.

Sometimes that’s the game we play when you deal with the weather. There’s still plenty of room on both fields for more observers. If you’re still traveling in, have a safe journey and we will see you when you get here!
-Will

[Will Young]

Thursday’s Field Report

`Wednesday afternoon the skies cleared and opened up beautifully. It was a chance for many to get their solar gear tested and ready for Saturday. The skies remained clear until about 10pm but the wind was fairly strong.

Today starts the series of afternoon talks at the Lodge. At 3pm Randy Light will be presenting “How to Photograph an Annular(Ring of Fire) Eclipse”.

On Friday and Saturday there will be two more talks at the 3pm time slot with giveaways on both days following the presentations!

There’s still lots of star party left and I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!
-Will

[Will Young]

Friday’s Field Report

It’s a Halloween style Friday the 13th here at ESP!

On Thursday afternoon the skies cleared around 2pm and were really nice most of the night. Sunset had that magic in the air as astronomers began uncovering their scopes and powering on their rigs. It’s the kind of thing you have to be here to experience. We did have some dew that set in just before 2am and that seemed to put observing on hold. All in all it was a great evening and both the Lodge field and the Main field were buzzing.

At 3pm today Dan Davis will be doing his afternoon talk at the Lodge, “A Geologist-Stargazer’s View of Tectonics Around the Solar System” followed shortly by dinner.

Now let’s talk a bit about the big day. Saturday morning starts with the eclipse-day registration opening up at 7am and running until 11:15am. Those of you traveling in for the day only will want to stop by the registration building on the Main field and get that solar gear ready for the big show!

I see the eclipse starting around 10:20am with the Sun at 30 degrees. The eclipse will end at 1:26pm. The full annular disk will be visible from right here at the XBar Ranch from 11:46am – 11:51am. It’s going to be a fantastic Saturday at ESP!

Feel free to drop in the comments your plans to watch or photograph the big event! Good luck y’all and let’s have a great weekend!
-Will

[Will Young]

Saturday’s Field Report

Another amazing afternoon and night for a Friday on the ranch!

Everyone here at ESP is set up and ready for the big show. The annular eclipse of 2023 is finally here and it all goes down this morning. I know many of us have been planning this one for years and now it’s go time!

I’m sure there will be lots of amazing images to come on Sunday. Post an image of the eclipse if you get one in the comments below. We would love to see what some of y’all were able to capture.

After the eclipse fun, you can’t miss Stephen Odewahn from McDonald Observatory and his talk at the Lodge at 3pm. It’s going to be stellar.

Shortly after that we will have the final ESP giveaway and then another great night of observing!

Good luck imagers and visual enthusiasts on your solar adventure tomorrow! Cheers to the ring of fire!
-Will

[Will Young]

Sunday’s Field Report

Talk about a picture perfect day! The day started early for us at the XBar.

Most of the astronomers were out at 8am or so starting to set up their final gear for the annular eclipse and the full ring of fire. The field was electric, temps were in the upper 50’s and the wind was high. Shortly after first contact the wind started to calm and the clouds became less of an issue.

It was a whirlwind of activity as imagers started getting their data and visual enthusiasts were taking in the views. Here at the ranch we saw a full ring of fire at the max of the eclipse and it was truly a sight to behold!

After the eclipse it seemed we were all very pleased with how it all went and the experience was incredible. What a week!

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. It’s always astonishing how fast the week goes while you’re out here but that’s because we are all having so much fun and learning new tricks as we go.

A huge thank you to the Meador family as always for letting us share their beautiful skies. Another huge thank you goes out to our ESP volunteers. Without them this event wouldn’t be possible.

Thanks for tuning in and I hope these posts helped as the event went along. I can’t wait for ESP 2024!

This is Will, signing off.
Clear skies.

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