The most exciting sound in your car since freeway shootings
Posted Monday July 19, 2021
Posting of the OffCON 4 program/DOPE Book was requested some time ago, however due to organizational minutiae, files were misplaced and other more important things were moved on to. However, since we’re gearing up now for OffCON 6, a concerted effort was put into locating the files, and they were eventually recovered from a backup disk. That said, I present to you, in all it’s unholy glory:
Posted Monday July 19, 2021
In short, no one is sure yet, least of all me. Planning is preliminary, but there is much work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. But in the spirit of “the best time to start planning was yesterday”, and “the second best time to start planning is now”, some quick announcements. We hit some major snags last year and which like the rest of 2020 was a slow motion calamity. fingers crossed We will attempt to avoid that this year.
As per usual, the OffCON is traditionally the second or third weekend in October, sometimes we shoot for a full moon, sometimes we actively avoid it. This year Oct 20 is a full moon, so like it or not, we will have a nearly full moon for the weekend. This should open up more opportunities for night shooting, pending a location that allows such.
OffCON 2021 will be either Oct 14-17, or Oct 21-24. Come back for more official announcements!
Posted Sunday October 18, 2020
There was no official announcement of Offcon 2020 as the event was greatly scaled back because 2020 is 2020, and there’s nothing Murphy hates more than someone making a long-term plan. Despite efforts to avoid it, Murphy made a big showing this year, and for now Offcon is officially dead pending a new location.Here is the report from Jim about what happened Saturday morning:
OK, here is what happened this morning at Camp Taco. Just after I got out of my tent, I saw a vehicle traveling south on RM361 adjacent to the camp. It said something Police (could not tell who due to bushes). Said vehicle then pulled into our driveway and I saw that it was US Navy Police.
A Lt. got out and asked how I was doing, and then advised that I was trespassing on Navy property. Having not remembered the discussion a year or two about some land out there changing hands, I asked when that happened? He advised that it was in 2016, but the Navy had not started doing anything with the land. A lot of the changes were supposed to happen this year, but Corona slowed some of that down. He was very specific that at this point, his purpose was education. I said that was interesting because we have checked with BLM after 2016 and they made no mention of it. He said yep. The guy was about as nice as he could be about it.
We chatted for darn near 45 minutes. I asked him point blank if I needed to leave and he said yes. He did however say that what I do after he left was not under his control. He also said that there were Navy Environmental people a mile or two north who had seen my camp and reported it to the Navy Police. So I can assume that if I did not leave, there would be a followup visit – and it might not be so pleasant. I fixed and ate my breakfast, did one more drone flight, and packed up. I left Camp Taco for the last time at 1125.
He showed me the map, but said that he could not give me a copy – but he did let me take a photo of the map. That photo is attached.
Here is the attached image of the map.
Posted Wednesday October 9, 2019
This is the final announcement, and plan overview.
WE HAVE NOW CONFIRMED SITE ACCESS. THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED MONDAY 10/14 WITH A SITE VISIT. THIS IS THE FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!
Offcon is now open. Anyone who wants to attend can. It is recommended you be a known personality to the BigSAC crew, but hey, you do you. What’s less awkward than introducing yourself to a bunch of strangers in the middle of nowhere?
Cost: $40 to participate in the long range rifle clinic. This is to cover materials and is payable in cash on site.
Meals: There will be no chuck-wagon this year
Location: The location is approximately 25 miles and about a 1-hour drive from the nearest paved road, in the back country near Black Water Wells in the Red Mountain BLM management area. Exiting US-395 at Cuddeback/20 Mule Team road, and then driving east. The dirt roads in this area do not have conventional road signs but will be marked with RM and a number. If for some reason you get lost and find a different two-letter designation you have left the Red Mountain management district and are terribly lost.
The suggested route is:
RM34 (Cuddeback/20 Mule Team) – This is the exit from US-395
RM50 – RM34 turns into this road on the far side of the Cuddeback Dry Lakebed, pay careful attention as the road and signs are not well marked in this area, essentially you want to continue headed in the same direction at the far side of the lake, however it may look like a left-turn is needed. Avoid this, if you make a mistake this road is labeled RM134, just backtrack until you hit RM50/RM34.
RM100 – There is a Gate on RM50 at Black Water Wells, this area is property of a Desert Tortoise Habitat preservation group. Please close the gate after driving through. Driving a short way up to the old site of the ranch at BWW, RM100 leads south and goes around the hills to the east.
RM361 – After passing through the hills and going downhill, the valley opens up, there’s a spot of joshua trees and then make a left turn (north) onto RM361.
Alternatives (and if you get lost)
RM363/RM359 meet up with RM361 on the far side of the hill. If you get lost and continue on RM34, this will take you the northern route around the large hill shown on the maps. You can take this road directly to RM359 and turn south until it meets with RM361 you should see camp from there. This route is rockier and at least one person last year tore open a tire going this way.
This map shows everything from US-395 to camp.
Here is an inset detail image.
Itinerary
Thursday – Arrive at camp, set up and establish camp. Enjoy some stargazing.
Friday – There will be an introduction to long range shooting, including mathematics, observation techniques, gear lists, and organizational information. This will be followed by observation techniques, some coaching on position shooting and gear, and then establishing DOPE, and an impromptu Ball Torture session as the sun goes down.
Saturday – This will be the practical application of Friday, including Range Estimation, Target acquisition, Wind Reading and DOPE. This will be done as a session of Rifle Golf.
Sunday – Site cleanup, camp breakdown and drive out.
Gear List
Posted Aug 24, 2019 12:30 PM
Doing weekly meetings is a blessing and a curse, it’s a blessing in that it keeps you active and engaged, but it’s a curse when that activity becomes a baseline that most never cross again. It requires time, dedication, and lots of sweat to propose, research and plan trips. It also requires still more time, dedication and effort to document it.
However, on a fine Saturday, BigSAC met up for a little road-trip. The meeting location was REI’s store in Arcadia, CA. It is central ot the San Gabriel Valley, and located just down the street from our beloved Santa Anita Canyon. This location was mostly chosen out of convenience, they sell USFS Adventure Passes (needed to park in the ANF). This was the first time many of us had been to an REI in many years, for a long time they ceased selling climbing equipment, and stopped carrying camelbak. Either way, after showcasing a few items some of us were considering we bought our Passes and left.
Two cars and a motorbike made the next 31 miles of the trip uneventfully and met at the Redbox turn off parking lot where Hwy 2 was closed for a rock slide further up the road.
This didn’t matter, as we were headed towards Mt Wilson anyways (up Redbox Road). A few moments later we were greeted by the collection of large and impressive radio towers that provide much of the Broadcast FM Radio and TV signals for the Los Angeles Basin. Driving around the loop that surrounded the broadcast structures, we were greeted by the gate to Mt Wilson Observatory. We parked in the lot and walked up towards Cosmic Cafe. It was about then that the altitude hit us, and the slog up the stairs to the pavilion level was a bit labored, but we made it.
The Pavilion level offered a good view of the antenna structures on the western side of Mt Wilson.
Stunning views of the Los Angeles basin, the rest of Mt Wilson, and also seeing further into the Angeles National Forest were all offered from the pavilion. We had a quick bite of lunch from the Cosmic Cafe, which offers a limited, but very well executed menu. (Hot dogs, a few basic sandwiches, and chili) We purchased our tour tickets and spent about half an hour looking at things, talking and drinking iced tea.
The tour started rather promptly at 1pm, about 10 people were in the tour. The first several stops were all about the history of the location, rather than get into detail here, go read about it on their site. The first major stop was the “150 foot solar telescope”. It’s worth noting that the “150 foot” is the focal length not the dimension of the primary mirror or lens. This thing is quite large and impressive!
We were allowed inside to view some of the equipment and see the output of the telescope. Like most telescopes designed for serious science, this telescope was built on top of a large spectrometer that was as large as the above-ground section. Seen on the table near the hand control, there is a covered area, which an eyepiece fits on that allows direct observation of the spectrometer output.
Next up was the 60” Reflector, which was the largest telescope in the world while the 100” telescope was still under construction. The primary use of this telescope was for studying globular clusters, and was also one of the first attempts at establishing the size of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The final stop of the tour was the 100” Telescope. The historical significance of this scope cannot be understated. While the 60” was critical in establishing the groundwork that was later performed on the 100”, the 100” changed humanity’s understanding of the universe. Hubble, in establishing that “Nebulae” were actually distant galaxies played into the discoveries that were going on at the time after the publication of Einstein’s equations for Relativity and Special Relativity, and set the groundwork for observational and much of the theoretical cosmology that has come since. As a device that is now well over 100 years old, there is little about it that isn’t impressive. Even the scale is massive.
This is where the tour concluded. We chatted with the tour guide for a bit about some of the specifics of the facilities and the instruments. If you are planning a trip that takes you anywhere near this fascinating and historic site, it is worth checking out their Event Calendar to see if there is an event that meets your interest. Even the basic tour is highly recommended, if not for seeing the instruments, but also for the views.
Originally Posted Aug 23, 2019 04:13 PM
BigSAC ARC will be conducting a field trip and tour of Mt Wilson Observatory Saturday 8/24/19.
Costs: USFS Angeles Adventure Pass ($5/day $30/yr), Mt Wilson Observatory Tickets ($15/person)
Overview:
Anyone interested in attending should arrange a ride prior to showing up. We will be meeting at REI Arcadia at 10:30am, taking a quick look around the store, purchasing USFS Angeles Adventure Passes (which are required to park at Mt Wilson Observatory), the cost is $5 for a day pass, or $30 for a year.
At 11am, we will load up and leave, headed for Mt Wilson, the drive is expected to take about an hour. Park in the main lot, and then head for Cosmic Cafe where if you didn’t get a Adventure Pass you may buy one, also we will be having lunch and purchasing tour tickets. Tour starts at 1pm.
Route:
Comms:
There are no pre-arranged comm frequencies for this event.