Oasis Restaurant Goes Supernova

The Oasis Restaurant, high up on the hill overlooking Lake Travis in Austin, TX has been a fallback nebula for the Austin Dam Astronomers for years now. Every Friday night, weather permitting, the group has met in the parking lot adjacent to Mansfield Dam to do a combination of stargazing and public outreach.

From this site, many Austinites as well as a number of tourists have enjoyed their first telescopic views of Saturn, Jupiter, any number of galaxies, nebulae and even our own bright satelite, Luna. At times our astronomical pursuits are interrupted by clouds and we resort to our backup nebula, the Oasis Restaurant.

Our telescopes gave us a very wonderful view of the bright establishment on the hill over a mile away. We fondly referred to it as The Oasis Nebula.

The Oasis Nebula went supernova in the early morning of June 1st, 2005. I took the opportunity before sunset on Friday, June 10th to photograph the supernova remnant (astronomers are supposed to chuckle here). Good luck to the owners of the Oasis in their rebuilding efforts.

See my photos below.

(The Oasis was hit by lightning and burned. Reports detailing the fire can be found on local news websites.)