Steen Mountains in Oregon

[Mark]

Wondering if anyone here has observed from the Steens?  If so, can you share the location, and where you stayed?

Thanks...

[John Pierce]

On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 6:33 PM Mark <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wondering if anyone here has observed from the Steens?  If so, can you share the location, and where you stayed?

this time of this year, it likely looks like...

 

[Mark]

I'm not going skiing John.  But thanks!

[Mark]

Found what I was interested in:

http://www.oregonphotos.com/pagenine-C.html

[Akarsh Simha]

I’ve observed, well, from Steen’s mountain. I went there before the eclipse of 2017 and maybe looked at one object through Debbie Alsing’s telescope. But the previous night, I’m told, was absolutely splendid. We were heavily impeded by wildfire smoke from BC.

The site was “up” from Fish Lake campground. I don’t remember the exact way to get there, but there’s a highly washboardy dirt road from Frenchglen, OR up to the Fish Lake. Somewhere along the fish lake campground is a two track road going up a plateau.

Regards

Akarsh

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[Mark W]

Ha, I did note my naming error.  I was relying on my memory from around 2001.

Looks like about a 4-1/2 drive from Adin.  Just thinking.  I remember talking with Check Dethloff about the place, 20 years ago (?) At OSP.

I had no idea the Alsings had gone there so recently.  Did you arrange to meet them there Akarsh?

Mark

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From: sf-ba...@googlegroups.com <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2022, 8:06 PM
To: sf-ba...@googlegroups.com <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TAC] Steen Mountains in Oregon

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[RBA]

I mentioned Steens Mountain and Alvord Desert on TAC about 9-10 years ago. Some Mark Wagner guy corrected my spelling of Steens Mountain (LOL), and pointed out that this was the place for the OSP many years ago.

The skies up in the mountain are superb if the conditions are decent. Anywhere, before or after Fish Lake. Light pollution is non-existent 360 degrees all the way down to the horizon, except perhaps a tiny bit on the direction of Boise, Idaho, assuming you can see zero degrees above horizon on that direction. Some of the darkest skies you'll find in the continental US along with the Tonopah, NV area, no doubt.

RBA

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[John Pierce]

On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 8:42 PM RBA <r...@deepskycolors.com> wrote:

I mentioned Steens Mountain and Alvord Desert on TAC about 9-10 years ago. Some Mark Wagner guy corrected my spelling of Steens Mountain (LOL), and pointed out that this was the place for the OSP many years ago.

The skies up in the mountain are superb if the conditions are decent. Anywhere, before or after Fish Lake. Light pollution is non-existent 360 degrees all the way down to the horizon, except perhaps a tiny bit on the direction of Boise, Idaho, assuming you can see zero degrees above horizon on that direction. Some of the darkest skies you'll find in the continental US along with the Tonopah, NV area, no doubt.

huh, Google Maps thinks Fish Lake is just east of Medford along route 140, about 200 miles west of Steens or Alvord Desert.     Oh wait, there's another Fish Lake on one of the approaches to Steens, at about 7400 feet elevation...

Steens Mountain is well over 9000 feet, and the plateaus around it are in the 7000 ft range.    IIt does look like you can drive up to Steens Mountain Trailhead, which has a parking lot at about 9500 feet, eeeek, and thats on a saddle ridge, end of the road, its hiking the rest of the way up. 

I find anything much over 5000 feet, my visual acuity starts to degrade...  The Alvord Desert area is around 4000 feet, however.

[Paul Alsing]

Yeah, Deb & I went to Steens Mountain several days before the 2017 eclipse. We met up there with Jimi & Connie Lowrey and John Hoey. We were advised by Howard Banich that it was darker than the inside of a cat, and indeed, it was! Akarsh joined us on our second day there, and a good time was had by all. As Akarsh said, the preferred observing site is near the Fish Lake campground and the 2-track that he referenced starts next to campsite #13 and basically goes over a little hill and down into a lake bed that is dry in the summer. Steens mountain is the highest point in the southern part of Oregon and has a cell tower on top, so cell reception there is very good. The site is very dark, considering that it is located in the biggest black spot on the USA light-pollution map...

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=38.2615&lon=-100.2733&layers=B0FFFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFFF

... and being located in the middle of an 80 X 80 mile square that has a population of about 400! Here is the spot...

https://goo.gl/maps/q752YLDMLpsKtzVK8

This lake bed had a lot of little smooth rocks sticking up all over the place and Debbie took some glow-in-the-dark rope and made little halos for each one so that we could see them in them in the dark... saved us from falling down a lot!

As Akarsh has said, we were impacted by smoke for 2 of 3 nights, but for one glorious night we could not see our hands in front of our faces and the sky was among the best that I have ever experienced... and that covers a lot of years!

We would sure like to go back again!

\Paul Alsing

[RBA]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2022, 06:06 John Pierce <jhn.p...@gmail.com> wrote:

Steens Mountain is well over 9000 feet, and the plateaus around it are in the 7000 ft range.    IIt does look like you can drive up to Steens Mountain Trailhead, which has a parking lot at about 9500 feet, eeeek, and thats on a saddle ridge, end of the road, its hiking the rest of the way up. 

Yes, you can drive all the way up there, just a few dozen feet from the actual summit. Gorgeous views but windy AF.

Alvord Desert is a sweet place to spend the night, with dreamy skies all around, but observing is risky, mostly because of the untrathin sand, which could mean trouble if wind picks up even for just a minute.

RBA

[Tan usa1]

I spend a full week in July few years back on Steens and the area. Darkest skies, as dark as the upper himalaya. The only problem was mosquitos. Billions and trillions of them, more numerous than the stars in the universe. It was a parallel mosquito universe. Buy bulk deet, and take bath in it before you observe. 

That said, at the top mosquitos are far fewer

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[Mark]

Interesting.  Akarsh and Paul, did you find mosquitoes a big problem?

I remember one year at Lassen we had insane numbers of yellow jackets.  But, even though they are rather common, the crazy occurrence was a fluke.

[Paul Alsing]

On Monday, January 2, 2023 at 12:50:02 PM UTC-8 Mark wrote:

Interesting.  Akarsh and Paul, did you find mosquitoes a big problem?

I remember one year at Lassen we had insane numbers of yellow jackets.  But, even though they are rather common, the crazy occurrence was a fluke.

On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 8:44:01 PM UTC-8 TanveerSingh wrote:

I spend a full week in July few years back on Steens and the area. Darkest skies, as dark as the upper himalaya. The only problem was mosquitos. Billions and trillions of them, more numerous than the stars in the universe. It was a parallel mosquito universe. Buy bulk deet, and take bath in it before you observe. 

That said, at the top mosquitos are far fewer

Deb & I do not remember mosquitos as being a problem, and I will asume that their population in any given year would be water-dependent... and August of 2017 was pretty dry... but there were a *lot* of bees... Deb got stung twice up there!

\Paul A.

[Mark]

Just ran into this webpage on Steens Mountain, for those interested.

[Christopher Kelly]

Interesting...sounds like the original OSP folks were bad-ass.  But Prineville area ain't to shabby either.  We spent the run up to the eclipse just north of Painted Hills NM, on the edge of the John Day River, close to Mitchell, OR.

Chris

[John Pierce]

On Thu, Feb 2, 2023 at 12:12 AM Christopher Kelly <tyg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Interesting...sounds like the original OSP folks were bad-ass.  But Prineville area ain't to shabby either.  We spent the run up to the eclipse just north of Painted Hills NM, on the edge of the John Day River, close to Mitchell, OR.

that was one of the spots I'd considered prior to ending up at the RV park  at the County Fairgrounds in Madras.

[Tan usa1]

prineville is dark too, but its too far west so winter gets a lot of clouds. Going east = fewer clouds

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