I check the weather forecasts about 5:00am Friday morning and there was a well-formed front about 100 miles west of Cherry Springs, moving East. All the weather forecasts were based on predicting that this front was going to stall out somewhere over central PA but it didn't appear predictable to me so I decided it ignore the predictions. I anticipating some rain but a solid chance of some clear weather, also. I had packed the truck Thursday night so I started driving about 6:00am around Philadelphia and up the Northeast Extension to I80. I arrived at Cherry Springs about 11:00am to a field of campers about half full. The clouds were low and fast and rain looked likely. 

Dave, Scott E., Blake, Val and Michelle were already there, having arrived 1 or 2 days before. I set up my tent but left my telescope in the truck, out of the weather. Jim M. arrived later in the afternoon and we sat around, ate, talked, and did guy things. 

It started raining later Friday night so I went to bed and slept until around 9:00am Saturday morning. It continued to rain off and on until later Saturday morning and then stopped.  May's Munchables was the caterer and, as usual they had good food at good prices. About 6-8 vendors also showed up with the usual items. Also, three of the vendors were custom dob builders with very nice products. We visited the vendor tents, took a walk around the campgrounds and looked at the afternoon talk schedule in the pavilion. Someone had also posted the dark sky clock for Cherry Springs and it looked promising for most of Saturday night. The Saturday afternoon talks were good and the weather kept improving. No one in our club won any prizes but the best prize was won by all - it was beginning to clear by late afternoon. By full darkness, there were only a few black spots (clouds) in the sky and from about 11:00pm on it was cloudless and very transparent. There is a price for everything, however, and this time it was dew - heavy dew. The temperature dropped to the dew point and stayed there all night. So we basically had 100% humidity all night, which means everything that wasn't heated was a dew collector so we had to keep wiping the dew off our oculars, camera lenses, eyeglasses and such. 

The milky way was brilliant, with the Sagittarius dark nebulae taking on a 3D appearance and I was able to trace M31 across almost 4 degrees. Even NCG205 had shape and texture which is unusual in a 5-inch. Mars was very good, which we didn't expect given we were observing just after the passage of a front. I think the best view of Mars was from Scott's 8-inch reflector with Blake's 17-inch right behind. There were also a few dozen meteors with several fireballs and one that cast a distinct shadow. I went to bed about 3:00am because I had run out of dry rags. 

The weather report for Sunday night and morning called for clouds and some rain so all of us decided to pack up Sunday morning and go home, while the sun was shining and everything had dried out. The drive home over rt.44 was great with beautiful countryside. It took about 5 hours each way from my home in southern NJ. 

This was my second Black Forest Star Party. My 2002 trip report and photos are in the Photo Album on this web site. The 2002 BFSP was superb - probably the best star party I've attended in the last 25 years. This year was disappointing only because of the weather but that is exactly the risk that all star parties incur and I hope next year will be better. The Cherry Springs site is certainly one of the darkest places on the east coast, the 2200 foot altitude helps and the campground facilities are improving. This year, the poles were gone from the campground and replaced with electrical outlets scattered around the campground. There continues to be considerable effort on the part of the state and the amateur astronomy community to maintain Cherry Springs as a dark-sky site. I hope these efforts continue and I will continue my monetary support, as I hope other will. In all, the 5-hour drive each way is well worth the reward.

- Lane