Concerning the star party on the 8th of April, 2011…

I enjoyed myself. I thought the turnout was pretty good… even though only Leonard and I brought scopes, quite a few of our ‘visitors’ brought their own scopes, and I think a good time was had by all. Several of the people I personally invited showed up…. I must have had over two hundred people (and LOTS of yunguns’) peer through my scope at the Moon and Saturn. We showed a couple of people how to polar align and use a GEM mount, and answered a hundred questions… but that’s what we are there for, I guess. It was fun, and it’s been a long time for me.

Back in the early ‘80s, in Casa Grande, Arizona, I would sometimes set up a 10” GEM mount newt in my front yard. Before long, there would be a crowd gathered to have a look… there were no ‘astronomy clubs’ there at that time. The skies were good enough, and my scope good enough, to pull up some really great views of a few globular clusters and nebula, as well as planets and the Moon. My guests would be wide eyed and astonished at the eyepiece.

One night, one of my neighbors stopped by to see what the crowed was gathered for… he took a quick peek through the scope… and began to lecture us on people who ‘waste’ their time on staring up at the sky, as it ‘accomplished’ nothing. He ended with, and I quote: “I’ll leave you to look at the stars… I gotta go in now, or I’ll miss my TV shows…”

I sincerely hope he enjoyed his ‘TV shows’ as much as we enjoyed ‘our stars’…

Keep looking up…

Devon

Sorry I missed it. My work schedule has changed and I'm not as free as I was last Fall to help out at the star parties.
It's always rewarding to see the wonder in people's eyes after they've looked through a decent telescope for the first time.

We did have a great time....

I've missed you Doc.......hope to see you at Mulberry Mountain in May.