This fisheye shot is unique in many ways. One is that it is the only Group Photo where I both took the Group photo, and also managed to be in it at the same time! See the camera up to my eye, just to the left of Garret's blue pants as he holds the hubcap for me. He is standing on top of one of Chuck's earliest astronomy ladders.
The complete group photo from 1989 shows the original 11 participants, whereas the hubcap picture above contains only 9 of the participants. Shown above are--- Chuck Dethloff is standing to my left, while John Buting is just above him. John has Candace to his right in the red jacket (despite the hot alpine sun, at over 7,000 feet, the air remains cool all day!)..... Steve Huss. and one of his daughters are present. Completing out the group are John Angel. and nine year old Russ J (seen just to the left of the black telescope tube). Judy D. was nearby, but not in this shot.
1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991 were the years of our Steens OSPs. We left the Steens forever in 1991.
1992 saw us begin holding OSPs at our new OSP site in the Ochoco Mountains--- about 140 miles NW of the Steens and very much closer to the major population centers of the West Coast. (click here for the story of Gary and Carolyn Strong's finding of our Ochocos site).
Returning to Steens-- and Oregon's Highest-Ever Star Party----A nostalgic note in 2008 is that a few of us "originals" still get back to the mighty "Steens" each year-- yes, the site was that good, and the mountain that magnificent! A bit of unknown Steens OSP history post-1991 is that sometime in the early years of the Ochocos OSP at Indian Trail Springs, maybe about 1996, Chuck Dethloff and his longtime observing buddy Howard held a star party high atop what I call Steens Peak North, at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (just under 9,700 feet). Thus, they were viewing from nearly TWICE the altitude of our Indian Trail Springs site! And they weren't just up there with light, small-aperture gear to "try out" the site-- Chuck observed with his 24-incher, the same beautifully-crafted Dob that many of us, and the public, have observed through at OSP, and at other star events around the Portland area.