The Westronomy Blog

We have an endemic butterfly species in Klamath County, Oregon. Leona's Little Blue ( Philotiella leona ) is only known to occur in a small area (12.8 square miles) near Sand Creek. A related species ( Philotiella speciosa , the Small Blue) occurs in scattered populations in California and the Southwest. This is a tiny butterfly. Adults are on the wing in late June and early July of most years. An inconspicuous plant ( Eriogonum spergulinum , spurry buckwheat) is the known food plant for the larvae. Butterfly species often specialize when it comes to larval food plants--while adult Monarchs will take nectar from many types of flowers, the caterpillars need milkweed (genus Asclepias , not some of the other plants that are colloquially called milkweeds). Similarly, Leona's Little Blue may be seen on a variety of flowers in its habitat including other buckwheats, willowherbs and borages, but when the females lay their eggs they lay them on spurry buckwheat.  I first sought out Leo...

I’ve gone to the Oregon Star Party every year from 1994 through 2019. When I started going, I lived in Portland, and I continued when I was living in Chiloquin in Southern Oregon. OSP at Indian Trail Spring was about the same drive time from each location. After OSP 2019, I moved from Chiloquin to Klamath Falls, adding another 30 minutes to the drive. I was still planning on going to OSP in 2022 - I still think of it as a tradition. But the summer smoke and the fire danger-related cancellation in 2021 got me looking around for other options.  The Golden State Star Party was never on my radar before this year; I’m not sure why. Maybe I only figured on going to one star party per summer. In March, I read about GSSP and realized that it was much closer than OSP (an hour and 45 minutes vs. 4 hours). I decided to register. Spring went by, and other things occupied my days. Work was a pain, and in June my parents caught COVID and then I contracted it after I went up to help them. It wa...