Remberences of things past...

With apologies to Marcel Proust, of course. Just a few photos I've taken over the years, and blogs are a great place to send them without "sending" them at all. Just upload and enjoy.

The first picture is Tom W. at CSSP after a heavy rain. His 30" was adequately covered, and suffered no damage from the rainstorms the night before, but the tarp (which fortunately did not leak) held several gallons of water.
This is the first time I ever heard of that listed bailing out as a maintenance item for the dobsonian telescope.

Next is just a shot of beautiful skies and the viewing field at Cherry Springs State Park, home to the Black Forest Star party, held just around Labor day each year. Pristine skies, and great folks to be around, for the most part. You get a few leather-lunged individuals loudly talking throughout the night, but I figure we're there to observe, not sleep. Yep, Tom and I were once HUSHED by a state park ranger around 4 AM after the clouds came in because we were deep in a conversation. My wife tells me my voice carries. So here was proof with a 9mm semiautomatic for proof!!

Speaking of dobsonian telescopes, the man in the green jacket, in front of whom the man in red is performing a salaam, is John Dobson, about 96 now, and still talking. A great privilege to hear his speak, and he was funny, but occasionally a bubble to the left of plumb regarding genesis of the universe. Fun anyway, and always great to see one of the folks who made our hobby that much more accessable. If he didn't do it, someone else would have, but he did.

Just another shot of the field at CSSP showing my "Millenium Falcon" scope, which started life as a Meade Starfinder, God knows what it will end up as, and our bino mount, and in the foreground, the collapsed binocular chair mount called the Couch Potato Telescope. Just had to buy it for the name alone. Works so well as a Bino mount, and is so comfortable, Mary fell asleep in it while viewing. I could tell in the dark because 1) she stopped talking; 2) a faint snoring from the general direction of the bino mount.

The last shot is from our early morning on Presque Isle, for the Transit of Venus a few years back. Tom W, and possibly Mike W. and possibly Bill M in this shot. Of course, Tom is the only one identifiable. A great thing to view, and the paired Venus transit (there are usually 2 a few years apart) would be a great thing to see again. You need a solar-filtered scope to view, but I made my own for about $30 and had enough material left over to make filters for the binoculars also. Baader solar film is a nice thing to work with. I also have pictures of my construction if anyone is interested.

Mike W. has a picture of the transit posted on our website. He got it through a TeleVue 85 with a solar filter. It was really cool to watch the last half of the transit, but no teardrop was seen by anyone there. Make your filters now so you are ready for the next one.

That's all I can post at this point. I'll send another one up soon with a few more pictures.

John F.