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:

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!

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.

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.