Well, we had a really good time last Saturday evening. I was skeptical about it even happening, but I was absolutely wrong on that. Members attending were myself, Rick Hill, Ed Wemmerus, Joe Roam, Kenny Dickerson and event organizer, Jon Stone, Jr.

Except for the cooking, everything was pretty good. (Just kidding Jon) But we'll watch to make sure all the lighter fluid is COMPLETELY burned off before we put patties on the grill next time. Even the gas I was producing the next day had that fluid tint to it. No open flames!

Anyway, post your experiences that you had last week if you attended, and any pictures you took, send them to me and I'll post them to our Club Activities page with a link to those specific images for everyone to click and see. Here are some of mine: Marathon1, Marathon2, Marathon4, Marathon7, Marathon10

One thing that I and everyone else wants to see come out of this weekend is more weekends like it. I can't think of anything I'd like to see more than that. We had a grand time of it, even with the moderately good/bad sky depending on how, and when, you looked at it. Even the nearly total lack of Messier Marathoning that all but Jon did, we had FUN and that's what was most important.

Purely from my experiences with this one, I'm really looking forward to the next weekend when we can have another good observing night amongst ourselves! (without the Messy Marathon)

Yes the lighter fluid burbs were quite interesting. But me, Rick and Ed all have an equal responsibility in that. We sat around and kept dumping lighter fluid in the coals because it wasn't getting hot enough while we had the hamburgers on the grill. You should have seen the three man team it took to get the grill up off the flames to add more lighter fluid.

Oh yeah, can't forget how many redneck astronomers does it take to put up a tent, THREE! You missed that one Bob.

But I had an absolutely fun time with all of you, including when we sat around talked at like 1 in the morning.

For the record, I decided not to attempt anything and stuck with my Herschel list, I found 21 objects, bringing my total to about 35 or so I think.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun - even with the lighter fluid flavored burgers.
I'm sorry I missed it this time. I'm looking forward to some of this kind of thing this coming year now that the home-building project is coming to a close.

Maybe next time.

All in all I had a great time too, although I did have to leave earlier than I really wanted to. I was having problems with my scope. ( Pilot error to be sure )

The lighter fluid taste to the burgers is definitely an acquired taste but I think I'll pass on it the next time. Took about three days to get the after taste out of my mouth.

Gotta run now

Ed