10/01/2006 Mile Marker 44 Group Gathers Again

Last night was really an excellent night for astronomy. Before I explain why, let me first acknowledge a few of the reasons why it should not have been an excellent night.
First, my friend Alfredo's generator would not start. We had battery power, but the idea of easy AC sounded good; so when the generator refused to wake up despite Alfredo's best efforts, it was slightly frustrating. Next, I smelled smoke. If you read my posting from very recently you know that you should never let the smoke out - apparently Alfredo didn't read it, and his 10" LX200 nearly went up in flames. It wasn't pretty. I won't even bother to mention any of my own equipment issues for the night, Alfredo's smoking telescope won the Technology Troubles Award hands-down.
We also had the moon to contend with, and for some reason it just didn't seem to want to set last night. Of course it maintained the official moon pace and set on schedule, but for some reason it seemed like it wanted to blast the most light into the sky that it could before retiring. As if these problems were not enough, nasty clouds strolled leisurely through the sky all night long.
How then could it be such an excellent astronomy night?
The reason is that despite all these crazy distractions, I was able to get together with some of my best astronomy buddies (Larry, Alfredo, and Jim) for a night of stargazing. With our different schedules, wives and family commitments, health matters, work agendas, etc., it's been hard for the 4 of us to catch up with each other for a long time. But those other 3 guys played a major role in bringing me up to speed when I stepped back in to amateur astronomy. We always have a great time comparing equipment and observations, and just hanging out together to talk about whatever amateur astronomers talk about in the middle of the night. We've followed each other home in early morning drives when the drowsiness is setting in. We've shared cookies, pizza, drinks, donuts, and other various unhealthy foods to keep the energy levels adequate for an all-night observing session. Much as I love the science and the observing and imaging challenges of this hobby, the best part of all is enjoying it with good friends.
So thanks guys for making this great hobby so much fun!
This picture is one taken last night at our session at the Mile Marker 44 site. It's the Silver Coin Galaxy in Sculptor, taken low on the horizon with clouds, so it's a bit noisy.