Well, to her everlasting credit, Marie at RA, who said yesterday she had tried several times to get the incorrect confirm message changed - appears to have succeeded - I got a refreshed confirm with the pet section omitted.

But our astronomy club had an informal meeting tonight at a public viewing session, and the Philly trip is still conditional.

Reservation is for 12/7-9, BTW, - and because the scope donor is preparing to raze the buildings, our club has to go to afterburner and go right away.

Deb and I are bringing our Barth down from Georgia at the end of the month for the winter and have booked spot 36 for the get to gether in Dec.

See ya!

ED

Great! That brings it to 3 with 3 months to go, but as we've said before, this is an informal GTG and you have to make your reservations early to be assured a spot.

Danny, our plans are up in the air right now, (thats why I haven't responded until now) BUT we think we will be in Florida then. Our unknown is will we bring the Barth or not, as we have purchased a small place in Lake Wales. If we are there we will attempt to come with or without the Barth at least during the daytime.
Would like meeting all.

Mike

Just checking the moon for the weekend, and see a new moon for Sunday, meaning we should have a sliver on friday night. I always liked looking at the sliver through my Wall-mart scope, you could really see the details of the edge of the moon. Hopefully there will be no lights behind the community building and we can see some real sky thanks to Rusty. Will Saturn still be a major thing to see by then? I'd really like to see the rings.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny Z:
Just checking the moon for the weekend, and see a new moon for Sunday, meaning we should have a sliver on friday night.

I watched it rise last night. Pretty full. Made me wanna sing, "Shine On, Shine On, Harvest Moon,.......... etc." I was up in a Ferris Wheel, so it was all right.

Saturn and Jupiter will both be gone (may be able to just cach a glimpse of Jupiter depending on the horizon). The Great Orion Nebula and the Pleiades will be up, as will Uranus and Neptune.

I expect I'll bring the 11" scope.

Whatever we see will be more than I ever have.
bill, I was talking about the weekend of the get together, didn't make myself very clear. This mornings full moon was huge.

Uranus and Neptune are basically featureless blobs, and I show them to folks just to "punch the ticket" as there are so few folks who have ever seen either. If the seeing is spectacularly good, sometimes features on Neptune can be seen, as can a couple of Uranus' larger moons (there are 4).

The Great Orion Nebula is, however, spectacular, and there are some other interesting "dim fuzzies" (as we astronomer call many deep space objects - "deep space" meaning "beyond the solar system") that show themselves in late autumn.

Visually, through any scope affordable by mere mortals, no deep space object is seen visually with the same impact as a Hubble image. But, then, all my scopes together didn't cost $1.5 billion...

As of now, there are but three of us confirmed (Danny Z, Deb&Eds35, and me) with a possibility of ironsides making it as well.

This will be a rare opportunity to not only meet other Barthers, but also to have Casey check you out for dog-spit-deficiency (which he will rectify on the spot), but also a chance, weather permitting, to see some Astronomical Wonders.

Be there or be square...

As of now sites 31 32 39 and 40 are still available, along with others nearby. Remember, this is a first come first served deal and you have to make your reservations through
http://www.reserveamerica.com/camping/map_of_Hillsborou...gency=FL&parkId=1037
December 7 8 9
As I've said, this isn't just a sit around and stare at each other park. There are miles of trails for bicycles and hiking. On site bike and canoe rentals and a beautiful lazy river so it's really easy to go in either direction, a nearby wall to fish from, a tram that takes you back to an old fort,[2 bucks, I think], a huge swimming pool, and Rusty say he's bringing a telescope for some skywatching like we've never seen. Hope to get some more folks there, but we'll have some serious fun no matter how many show.

Folks may get info that Mars will also be in a very favorable position for viewing in December. When I do a Public Viewing thingy for Mars, I introduce it as: "Mars, the Gray Planet", because its usually featureless, and frequently doesn't show the reddish color associated with it. I may bring my camera that'll take several photos then show on a TV screen, but for the planets, a webcam-ype imager is best, but I don't have one.

We're getting close to the 4 week window that somehow makes State Park sites disappear, so I thought I'd let you know that there are still some sites in our area. Last check showed 29, 30, maybe 31, 39, and 40 as available. See earlier posts on this thread for reservation info. Sites MUST be reserved through the link provided. Hope some more of you can get down here.

Puleze send sizes for T's, not who they're for, just how many what size.