"All good things come to those who wait..."

Anticipation and traffic - 2 1/2 hours later and Fremont Peak is in my sites. I have not seen the Milky Way in almost 15 years, so naturally I'm excited and looking forward to finding a location on the Peak with a good view of the eastern and southern sky. Already my eyes are burning and stinging from my new contact lenses but I refuse to let a little discomfort interefere with what promises to be a great evening of viewing. I park my car at the SW lot and take a look around. I introduce myself to a few TAC'ers who are already setup - John, Robin, Robert and Bill come to my mind. So many new names! The SW lot doesn't seem to have the view I'm looking for so I head down to the Ranger's station where the views looks a bit better for the summer constellations. Already there are numerous scopes setup in the lot, including several Obsession's and a very impressive looking 7" Astrophysics refractor on what looks like a great polaris mount. Again, I introduce myself, everyone is very friendly and helpful. Richard N. is there with his 8" Meade SCT and I recognize him from his web page. Mark W. is also there his kids lurking in the back of his pickup truck, making cryptic notes on small pieces of paper that say things like, "Dob's suck!" Akkana arrives in her Fiat Spider with her 13" scope mostly in the front seat! This promises to be an interesting evening.

I setup my short tube and wait. The wind soon dies down and the clouds begin to thin a bit. Just after the sun sets I hear Richard calling me over, "I've got Mars in my scope, come take a look." And soon it was M81/M82, M65/66 and M51. Richard then takes me over to one of the Obsessions, "Now see what they look like through a big telescope. I was impressed. Throughout the evening I had a chance to see splendid views of several objects through various telescopes. After I had a look through the large scopes Richard asked me, "So, are you ready to go buy a new telescope?" I laughed and told him that I was tempted. "Yeah, aperture fever is catching."

When I wasn't looking through someone else's scope, I was using my Vista 10x50's to check out the night sky. I found M81/M82 with the bino's quite easily and then pointed the short tube in that direction and voila! M81 and M81 are somewhat *difficult* in the light polluted suburbs of the East Bay but here they were *so* easy. I turned the short tube to a few more familiar objects, like M44, M13, the open cluster in Coma Berenices. I was still waiting for Sagittarius to rise a little higher in the sky when Robin showed up and there was an impromptu attempt to use a bino-viewer in the 7" Astrophysics refractor. Before long there was a Zeiss bino-viewer attached, so Mark W. and contributed our 19mm Panoptics for what turned out to be the most amazing viewing experience of my life....

M13 was the subject. A familiar object to just about everyone. I'd seen it in my scope, in Richard's 8" SCT and in one of the large Obsession scopes. It's an impressive globular and I was pleased to see it resolved into stars on some of the larger scopes. However, nothing could compare to this experience. Somehow that Zeiss bino-viewer and the two 19mm Panoptics made a perfect match. I looked peered into the scope and heard the owner of the 7" refractor mention something about a 3D effect. I moved the eyepieces a bit closer together and when the images combined to form one image I was literally blown away. What appeared before my eyes was a 3-dimensional view of M13 that was bright and sharp all the way from edge to edge. The stars were literally photons leaping into my eyes! This was better than *any* photograph of M13. I was practically drooling all over myself. "This is awesome!" I said. I heard a chuckle, "He's seeing the 3D effect!" There were several people waiting to have a look. The bino-viewer turned out to be quite an attraction in that wonderful 7" refractor.

By now Sagittarius and Scorpius were high enough in the south-east for me to have a good look. The Milky Way was readily apparent and I traced it all the way into the north, past Cygnus into Cassiopiea where it seemed to dip below the horizon. I spent quite a bit of time identifying objects in Sag. And Scorpius, including M4, M8 (Lagoon), M21 (Trifid), NGC6231, M6, and M7. I used my 10x50 Vista's to sweep the central hub of the Milky Way. This was great fun and really easy pickings! The bino's did an superb job and were my best ally all night long. Once I had a good look with the bino's, I used the short tube with the 19mm panoptic to take a peak. Glorious views were everywhere. It was almost *too* much to take in all at once so I took a break and talked to Richard for a little while as he was located the dumbell and swan nebulas which were also quite beautiful. I soon located both of these objects on my short tube and tried my Orion Ultrablock filter which worked quite well. It wasn't until I used the Ultrablock on the Lagoon Nebula that I really saw what a difference it made - I could see a *lot* more nebulosity with the filter.

It was almost 12:30am and I was getting tired. Aside from being tired, my eyes were bothering me and I knew it was about time for me to pack up and leave. I was smart enough to arrange to stay in Santa Cruz for the night so I was not faced with a 2 1/2 hour drive home. Before I left, Mark W. and a few others were kind enough to offer some friendly advice and tips for finding suitable East Bay viewing locations. I was pretty much bleary eyed all the way to S.C. but the drive was quite tolerable. When I arrived, I was very surprised to see that I could still clearly see the Milky Way! Apparently, S.C. is *much* less light polluted than the East Bay. I quickly pulled out my bino's and took a look at Jupiter and three moons. Then I scanned back over to Sagittarius and called my mom out to have a look. She was half asleep but quite impressed with the view throught the bino's: "What kind of binoculars are these anyway?" she exclaimed. I went in, took out my lenses, had a bite to eat and then came out for one last look at the night sky. My eyes were no longer dark adapted but it didn't seem to matter - I could still see numerous objects with my naked eye and the Lagoon was really obvious in the bino's - even with the sodium lights in the parking lot! One last look at Jupiter and it was off to bed. It was truly a memorable evening and it was great fun meeting everyone.

Finally, my only regret is that Fremont Peak is so far away. It looks like an East Bay viewing site is going to be a necessity for me. If Castle Rock works out, that may be another option too. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to Fremont Peak for new moons and special occasions. Thanks to everyone who made this a memorable evening of stargazing!