September 14-24, 2006 by Margaret Campbell-McCrea

We can proudly say that the First Joint Astronomical Conference between members of RCA and our GAMA hosts of Mendoza, Argentina was a rousing, unmitigated success - - thanks primarily to the unending warmth and graciousness of our hosts.

On Sept. 14, nineteen people left Portland for Argentina, invited by Leo Cavagnaro, who has been in communication with RCA and OSP for more than five years. We were a combination of seasoned viewers, beginning viewers, and non-viewing friends. We were greeted with such enthusiasm and generosity that for a week we felt like royalty. Among other things, the GAMA people gave us a banquet, wined and dined us, took us to a tango show and a winery before we'd been in town two days. On Monday we moved from Mendoza to a small ski village nearer the Andes where we stayed at a lodge and went viewing at a private location at night.

The GAMA group had arranged for the Argentinean Army to set up an activities tent, with a side cook tent and port-a-potties for us, and to provide two soldiers per evening to accompany us! During our week at Uspallata Valley we took a day trip to Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, the Bridge of the Incas, a natural mineral bridge, to CASLEO Observatory where we unfortunately did not get to observe, and finished it off with a traditional barbeque, with more singing, dining, drinking, dancing, speeches, and toasts.

The skies were not as generous to us as we hoped. We got one full night of viewing, but got so cold by 1:30 a.m. that we quit. The other nights we dodged clouds, but managed to get a few more short sessions in. Friday morning was a partial eclipse, and the day was spent on a variety of personal activities, including hiking, rafting, petroglyphs, shopping and visits to a hospital and a factory.

Among my memories is an unforgettable night of the Tarantula Nebula, 47 Tucanae, and Omega Centauri. I also liked very much seeing some rather "ho-hum" items from OSP turn into gorgeous glamour queens in the southern skies - - M 4 and M 55, to be exact. Sagittarius and Scorpius were in full form and lovely, but very much sideways. Orion came up upside down and even more confusing, backwards!

The most important part of the trip, however, was connecting with one very amazing amateur astronomer - - our host and the energy behind the trip, Leo. He made a book of 100 southern springtime objects, complete with charts and pictures and data on all the objects, which he gave to us as presents. It's top quality, and we'd like to see the Astronomical League publish it.

Leo has a heavy, hard-to-move 8" scope, two eyepieces, and he doesn't use a finder scope which is fine - - the one he has isn't useful. He finds all his objects just by knowing the sky so well, and what's more, he doesn't settle for the big showpieces. The smaller, dimmer and more obscure an item is, the more he likes to find it - - and he's got all those NGC numbers memorized. I was floored when I saw tiny little glob after smidgy little galaxy after bits of nebulae, all from this clumsy scope and no finder!!!! This man is a true observer and I believe he could give Stephen J. O'Meara's eyes a run for the money. Our other friends were working with even smaller scopes, few eyepieces, and one of our friends had no eyepieces at all. We left them with some gifts - - a Barlow, an eyepiece, a couple of filters, a Telrad, an atlas, and Ken Hose donated his 8" travel scope.

But our Argentinean hosts were not to be outdone in the gifts department. They made a poster for the hotel, they put welcome banners on the tour bus and banquet hall, they arranged for newspaper and television coverage of our trip, and they gave us each a commemorative plate of the event, and sent one home with me for RCA.

All week we were having such fun that at some time each of us thought, "I'm going to really hate to leave this place." I had ambitiously thought I would do the entire southern sky program, but finished only half of it. CASLEO still beckons, and I just found out there is a cosmic ray observatory in Mendoza. So, there is reason to return. I can't wait. In the meantime, we'd like to invite Leo and any of his other friends who can come up here to OSP, RCA and perhaps ALCON 2007. Leo's friendship for us is genuine, and we'd like to show him some American hospitality in return. He'd be a terrific addition to anyone's speaker's roster.

Oh, and did I mention, the Andes were spectacularly beautiful?

Here we are with our GAMA friends, guides & deluxe tour bus - high on the Andes!

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