WOW! What a night! Thanks to EVERYONE who came out to the comet-viewing party at Lakeside last night. Fantastic views, perfect weather, dark skies, excellent company. It was nice to meet some of you whom I have only exchanged emails with to date. It was one of those not-frequent enough nights when everything worked perfectly. I NAILED my polar-alignment, and didn't have to constantly push buttons while guiding. In fact, I didn't guide at all! The guidestar stayed on the crosshairs as if it were nailed there. Clean livin' and home-brewed equipment, I tell 'ya! Mention was made that the site would be appropriate for club dark-sky star parties, and I will enthusiastically support this. The skies are not perfectly dark, but for a site within an hour's drive of Salt Lake, they are certainly very good, especially to the north and west. Even the S.L. light dome to the east only extended above the hills a few degrees. Bruce Grim, Joe Borgione, and I were using our 15 x 70 Bear binos, and these provided a perfect view of the comet. After the comet set, Bruce began knocking-down Messier objects with them in rapid succession. They readily showed M3, M51, M65, M66, and surprisingly, M97, which took us by surprise for its large apparent size in binoculars. M42 was stunning, as usual. Seen against the larger backdrop of the entire sword region made it only more beautiful. The Beehive was fantastic, like diamonds on velvet. This time of year, the ecliptic forms a right-angle to the horizon, and the zodiacal light formed a huge gossamer triangle that speared upwards toward the zenith. It was still readily apparent when we "folded our tents" and left for a debriefing at the truck stop. The winter Milky Way dazzled the eyes with the addition of Jupiter and Saturn. A few people managed to tear themselves away from the comet long enough to alert the rest of us to a shadow transit on Jupiter, icing on the cake! Well, I've got to get at least a little work done this morning, then it's off to the lab to process last night's film. I shot the comet with the identical set-up and image scale I used for Hale-Bopp, for comparison purposes. If I get some good shots, I'll bring them to the April SLAS meeting. Thanks again to all who attended and helped make a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Many people who didn't have to work today stayed well past comet-set for a night of deep-sky observing, and I wish I could have joined them; but even the few hours I was there will remain indellibly etched in my memory. :) Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/