What a great time I and my daughter had at the 2011 Great Basin Astro Festival. Below is a quick report of the public star parties on Thursday and Friday. We had to leave for home on Saturday, so unfortunately we were not able to help with the star party that night, but I suspect the weather was not good that evening. Thursday, 7/28: Attended the Ranger talent show from 8:00 to 9:00 pm and it was a hoot! After the talent show we hoofed it down to the picnic area where the scopes were set up for the public viewing. All day the skies were partly to mostly cloudy, but as sometimes happens, the skies opened up for the evening. The darkness was good, but transparency was not the greatest. With my 16" dob and my daughters 8" ball scope, we treated the public to viewings of M22, M8, M20, M57, M27, the Veil and the Crescent. Everyone who looked through the scopes were very appreciative and of course there were some very big WOWs and Oh My Gosh's. After the public left at around midnight, the skies got more transparent and so I stayed up observing until some high clouds came back in around 3:30 PDT. That night was the absolute best I have ever seen the veil through my scope. It was awesome! The Crescent was also looking great. Another personal favorite was N6520 and B86 right next to each other. What a cool contrast of open cluster and dark nebula. For those who are interested, below is the list of the objects I hit that night: N6940 N6520 B86 M11 M22 N6528 N6522 N6445 M17 M20 N6822 M21 N6712 M27 M57 N6781 N6888 N7027 N6818 N6960 Friday, 7/29: The skies were really not good this night. I heard that after the 8:00 to 9:00 presentation at the visitors center, the public were told that the skies were not good enough to view so virtually everyone left from there. At about the same time, several of us telescope drivers were sitting around talking, picking out the odd star through the clouds when most of us decided to pack it in. I waited a bit longer and just as I drove my van up to load the scopes, a group of about 10 people showed up. It just so happened that a sucker hole opened up around the summer triangle, so I quickly got my dob set to observe while my daughter entertained the group with her scope. Geoff also got his 24 inch driven dob ready. Shooting through sucker holes, we were able to show that group several objects including M4, M57, M13, M8, M51 and the cats eye. They were very happy that we showed them the wonders of the universe and since it was a small group, we were able to explain the objects that we saw more fully than is usual for a public viewing like this. Even though the skies were not considered good this night, those few people had a great time, as did I. I will definitely be back for the next astro festival at Great Basin. The Rangers and volunteers there do an outstanding job and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Mat Hutchings