Okie-Tex 2015 was the very first star party I ever attended, and looking back, it was equal parts magical and mildly ridiculous.
I drove down to Tulsa, met up with my uncle, and we carpooled the rest of the way across Oklahoma to Kenton. At the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
Our accommodations were…rustic. We had a backpacking tent and his car, which was less of a “base camp” and more of a survival strategy. It was freezing at night, blazing hot during the day, and I would later learn that this was not a bug of star parties in the middle of nowhere…it was a feature.
My imaging rig was a “new-to-me” Orion 8-inch reflector on a SkyView Pro EQ mount with an RA drive motor powered by four D batteries. I placed an astonishing amount of trust in that setup. Hanging off the Crayford was my Canon EOS Rebel T1i with an intervalometer, and every night became an adventure in trying to find targets, stay on targets, and generally convince the whole rig to cooperate. Nothing was truly polar aligned…just pointed vaguely enough in the correct direction that I believed in it.
Somehow, after a week of all that, I came home with my first-ever astrophotography images. I knew they weren’t amazing, but they were the spark. They became the starting line…the standard I’d use to measure every bit of improvement that came after.
And honestly, aside from the desert trying to freeze me at night and bake me during the day, the rest of the star party was incredible. I had always wanted to camp out in the middle of nowhere, and this was about as close as I could get. The food was great every day, the skies were unforgettable, and I was completely hooked.
