On 18 Aug 2007, at 20:56, Chuck Hards wrote:
We certainly dodged a bullet!
How true. Just enough clouds in the afternoon to keep things pleasant. By nightfall all of the sky was clear except for the northern horizon where the clouds provided an excellent (and safely distant) lightning storm. A band of clouds did pass through about 10:30 but by 11:00 they had gone and all the sky was clear. Oh, and let's not forget the fireworks. Saturday was Stansbury Day and right at 9:30 the sky just across the water to the south lit up with celebratory fireworks. Fireworks to the south, lightning to the north and a beautiful sky overhead! WOW!!!
My heartfelt thanks to SLAS and the organizers of this event, it was a Saturday afternoon very well spent.
Rodger Fry deserves the kudos for putting the day together. He done good! BTW, earlier I mentioned that one of the items on offer at the swap meet would be the optics from the original SPOC scope. After much discussion on line Friday night and Saturday morning Bruce Grim (who had bought the optics back from SLAS some time ago) decided to remove the optics from the swap meet. Perhaps that was the bad news. However, the good news is that he has offered to donate them back to SLAS for use as part of SLAS's participation in the U of U's remote southern Utah observatory. This is provided, of course, that SLAS determines there is enough interest on the part of SLAS members and such a telescope can be incorporated into the U's plans. pw