Interested in sharing Bieber AirBNB during GSSP (even if you're camping.)

[Brad Templeton]

Deciding to sleep in a real bed, I've booked an AirBNB in Bieber (the location of the GSSP showers, 10 minutes down the road.)      It's a 3 bedroom, at a good price, so I was curious if anybody was interested in sharing.   I've booked the 11th to 14th (3 nights) butt could extend to the 4 nights.

If 2 others groups of 1-2 want to share it's just $160 for all 3 nights, and you get a bedroom and share kitchen with fridge, 1.5 baths.     If only one other wants to share it would be $240 for the 3 nights.

In fact, I think there might even be appeal to those who are tenting at the site, and who might sleep from bedtime to 5am then drive off to use a real bedroom, shower, fridge etc.

Of course, if you stay here you need to park your car down the road out of sight of the event so you can drive off when going to bed without disturbing observers.  My own plan is to do daytime activities, move my car at dusk and drive off around 1:30-2am.

Mail me if interested.

[Brad Templeton]

No response yet, may abandon.     On another note, this is not heartening.

 The level in gray is the thing we don't want.    None of them  until Saturday, then 4 days of them (not overcast though).

[Ido Greiman]

Brad, I actually sent you a message earlier today. I'm guessing you haven't got it.
I'm interested in a room, though now that I saw the forecast, I'm not sure it's worth the drive...

Ido

[Brad Templeton]

Odd, I didn't get it.  Let me know when you decide.   If it's really going to be 50% cloud for the whole event that will allow some visual observing but not be much good for imaging (which is what I want to do, while I look through other people's bigger scopes.)

If you look at https://weather.us/model-charts/aus/california/total-cloud-coverage/20260713-0000z.html

Most of the models are not pleased about Saturday night, and Sunday night is iffy.  Monday and Tuesday night show clearing on a few of the models.  So I will probably change my plans for Sunday or even Monday arrival if this continues.     Though the reality is it would be ideal to start it tomorrow, since it looks perfectly clear until Saturday.    Alas, probably not trivial to do that

[Ido Greiman]

I was planning on doing Saturday and Sunday and leave back home on Monday, which is why (given the current forecast) I'm not sure I'm taking that long drive for clouds. 

I'll probably make final decision on Wednesday. Hoping the forecast will improve as we get closer to the weekend...

Ido

[Joel Lee]

I’m in the same boat as Ido. Even if it clears up if it’s a small clear window I’m probably not going to go. 

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[Brad Templeton]

Some of the models are showing some clearing Sunday night, but several show Monday and Tuesday could be clear.  Will be tracking, but does seem the best plan if you only wanted 3 days is to start Sunday, or on Monday if you only want 2 days.   New moon is later anyway.

[Ido Greiman]

I promised to make a decision today, so here it is:
Since I can only attend Saturday and Sunday night, and the cloud coverage forecast hasn't changed by much, and given the fire in that area, I think I'm going to pass and do something local.

Ido

[Brad Templeton]

Understood.  Of course, a star party is both a social time and observing time, so it's not a total wash if the clouds come, but obviously disappointing.

Right now though, it seems that if you are not attending all 4 days, and can pick, picking the last 2 or 3 days is a win, observing-wise, rather than the first two or 3.    At present I am thinking of arriving Sunday with only modest hopes for Sunday night imaging, but better ones for mon/tue.    But I will monitor forecasts.  For example, while almost all the models show cloud at some of the times, if one doesn't, it says things are possible.      It depends on whether you are more upset if it was clear and you didn't go vs. you went and it wasn't clear.

Though it is 6 hours each way from the bay area,

[Joel Lee]

I’m also going to commit to not going. I only had Monday off so was going to stay Saturday and Sunday but since they are not entirely clear, I can’t justify the 12 hour round trip and gas. If I had more time off, I’d probably go to Shasta while waiting for a clear window but this year I don’t have the time. Alas, I’ll miss out on seeing everyone and on the T-shirt I preordered but oh well. 

It seems like most of the closer NorCal regions are also clouded out this weekend. Quite a bummer. 

On a side note, for future GSSPs is there a cancellation policy for the registrations? I couldn’t find anything on the website. 

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[Richard Navarrete]

Join us at Coe tonight !

Richard

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[Joel Lee]

I’d love to but unfortunately I can’t make it out tonight. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/1003334257.1700310.1783533844149%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Brad Templeton]

I have wondered if star parties can't be more weather flexible.    Obviously the bigger and more involved they are, with planning and potty contracts and staff etc. it's hard to make sudden shifts.    But at a place like LSA, where it's all very ad-hoc, it seems that if the weather was bad for the original dates, and there were clear dates before or after, a shift could happen.   Obviously some could not make the shift and attendance would be smaller, but isn't that better than a cloudy event which will also have smaller attendance because of the weather?     2 years ago, LSA spring fling was mostly rain.  I didn't go, but would have a few days before or after.  Of course, nothing stops me from going on my own but the point is to have a crowd.   When an event is unofficial, there are no officials to declare a change, I guess.

[John Pierce]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 12:19 PM Brad Templeton <bra...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have wondered if star parties can't be more weather flexible.    Obviously the bigger and more involved they are, with planning and potty contracts and staff etc. it's hard to make sudden shifts.    But at a place like LSA, where it's all very ad-hoc, it seems that if the weather was bad for the original dates, and there were clear dates before or after, a shift could happen. 

but then you change the phases of the moon    nights are already too short mid summer at 40N, you really want to bracket the new moon

[Brad Templeton]

Yes, that's why I said the days before or after.   Obviously you can't move it a week!     GSSP this time was scheduled to end at the new moon so it could move a few days later easily, or a few days earlier.    Yes, if it started tonight the moon would rise earlier than we like for the first 2 nights.   It's one of the tradeoffs.  Rather have a short bit of moon than clouds or rain.   Of course the cloud prediction is imprecise, and the lunar prediction fairly reliable.

[Peter Santangeli]

Planning for something like GSSP starts literally a year in advance. There are many, many details that nobody sees...

- The land owner

- Portapotties and garbage

- Insurance

- Volunteers and their personal schedules

- Meals

- Shower arrangements

- etc...

I think we'd all love things to be more flexible, but with as many as 400 attendees, moving things at the last minute will never be practical. And the costs don't change regardless of the weather (FWIW, GSSP is most certainly a non-profit. Everything gets plowed back into the event).

I will say one thing though - the ONLY way to guarantee that you won't have a good time at a star party... is to not go. Weather is very unpredictable, including up in Adin.

Hope to see as many of you as possible up there!

pete

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 12:19 PM Brad Templeton <bra...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/bd336c23-1b42-42ec-aee8-02a37f9230ddn%40googlegroups.com.

[Brad Templeton]

Yup, that's what I was saying when I started with "Obviously the bigger and more involved they are, with planning and potty contracts and staff etc. it's hard to make sudden shifts."   Wanted to preclude a reply like yours.    Let me know what I could have said to avoid that.

[Peter Santangeli]

No such thing as a dumb question :-) 

If you mentioned it, others were wondering about it too!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/d522d07b-5392-4578-8f3e-a15d6f0fec78n%40googlegroups.com.

[Mark]

Oregon Star Party didn't change to June for the shorter nights!

[Peter Natscher]

The Woodstock 1969 music festival relocated in a week 😵‍💫

On Wednesday, July 8, 2026 at 1:35:56 PM UTC-7 pe...@santangeli.net wrote:

[Mark]

Maybe Yasgur's farm is available!

[Brad Templeton]

I don't know what percentage of the crowd would say, "If forecast is bad, ie. only 1 clear night or zero, I would prefer to shift a few days to gain 2 clear nights" vs. how many would say "would rather keep original days."   The retired and vacation crowd would probably go to the former, working stiffs to the latter.   Calstar is probably not too hard to move.  An event like GSSP could be architected (with some work) if it found a site and contractors who were amenable but the ability to shift would need to be planned well in advance.  And again, I don't know how many would actually want the shift.

[Peter Santangeli]

You wouldn't have to move Calstar. You could just go another set of days.

There is almost no organization to it, and there are people their using the field every new moon :-) 

pete

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[Philip Manela]

The mantra around Calstar has always been (at least since 2012), “Come early, stay late”.  There are no fixed begin/end dates.

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[Brad Templeton]

Which is both good and bad.    A star party is about (at least) 2 things -- getting to dark skies, and socializing with other astronomy nerds.    So while  one can go to LSA any day (not just adjacent to Calstar) a core point of having "official" dates is to be there when a lot of others are, to show off your gear, look through others, meet friends, camp, share food etc.       But we want to do it under clear, dark skies.        I dropped the AirBNB but will come up tomorrow probably to GSSP, though Sunday night looks iffy, Monday and Tuesday look like they will be good (maybe even great on Tuesday night.)   

As a person of flexible schedule, I would find it an advantage if the principle was, "a few days before the event, we might move the event 1-3 days, still retaining a couple days of the original schedule for those who are not of flexible schedule."   Of course that requires all sorts of things that can be moved on short notice, which not every event will have, but Calstar generally does.      But it is not enough for me to be able to arrive earlier or stay later to get the clear skies, it is not Calstar unless lots of others are also doing that, it is just an OI.     Of course, at LSA it need not be anything official.  One person could say, "based on the forecast, I am showing up 2 days late and staying 2 days later if others also would like to do that" and others could then chime in and a movement could begin.   That is the plus of the county park.      Of course it's ideal if the gods cooperate and the scheduled days are clear days, and everybody's a winner, but an event where far fewer people come because that isn't true isn't desired.   An event where half the people come on days 1-2-3-4 and the other half come on 3-4-5-6 and everybody is there on 3-4 is the best result from that situation.   (And the very flexible come 1-2-3-4-5-6.)