Fremont Peak came back in full force and took control of the sky. The clouds that gave us constant consternation all day disappated into the night. What a sight to behold! I haven't seen such beautiful clear skies in at least six months...maybe more!

But at first, when the public enveloped the five or six telescopes set up, all we could do was grin and show them the moon. Slowly, patches of dark sky opened up here and there to see other things. However, it was uncanny trying to find an interesting object, because when your scope became pointed on an open area, the clouds saw it and quickly moved in to cover up "that" area. So, you moved on to a new opened area...darn! Foiled again! By 10:00 p.m., the crowd of 50+ people left and so did the rest of the clouds!! We looked up at pristine skies!

Just staring at the sky naked eye was enough to take your breath away. There was no dew and the seeing was very good! Where to start???? By then, Leo and Virgo were leaving with the last cloud cover. I ended up in looking at Messier objects in 8+ constellations: Lyra, Hercules, Sagitta, Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Sagittarius (welcome back!!), Cygnus, and ended with Cassiopeia as it rose over the trees. I don't know what hour I folded up my atlases and called it a night. It *was* before the sun rose. I wasn't even sleepy. The opportunity of such beautiful skies kept the epinephrine going.

One negative side to this fairy tale is that the skies were not *real* dark because of the light pollution. There wasn't a fog covering the nearby cities. That's something we have to live with until Mike Shade strikes these places dark (not dead). The other negative side was that even though there was no limitation to where I could look, there were several objects that just eluded me. I can't figure it out. I used the telrad or star hopped and sometimes...bingo! But too many other times...nada!!! (A pox on my scope!!!) Through it all, I managed to log over twenty objects and feel content to have been under a gorgeous sky with its brilliant Milky Way.

Acknowledgements:
Ranger Mike and Rod Norden, great slideshow talk! I loved the encouragement I received from Rod Norden, Jay Freeman, Mark Wagner, Rich Neuschaefer, Sandra Macika, Robert Hoyle, and always Ray G. I missed you, Richard Navarette (part of the Dob force) and as always, Robin Casady (how long has it been?). We expected to see Michelle Stone. Where are you?