Fun night at the Peak

by Nilesh Shah

I'll always remember this night for the locked out "emergency" I had. My Accord has a small light in the trunk which restricts me from keeping it open while I keep using my books, food etc. from it. At one time, may be around 12, I realised that I kept my keys inside and locked it. Luckily the doors were open, so I could get in the car. I thought I'll get into it from the back seat (I know there's a very simple solution...but it didn't occure to me then-:), but again, I needed the key to lower the back seat. I was always happy that I could never lock myself out in my Accord as one has to have key in hand to lock the doors and in that moment I suddenly felt that my faith was lost. I went to Mark and told him what happened. And then suddenly there was this emergency situation, people coming to help. We tried a couple of keys from other cars and we thought about calling AAA and I was thinking about calling my roomy to drive up the peak with the spare key I had at home. And then suddenly a voice(it sounded like an angel's voice, believe me!)came asking - "Is there a trunk release in your car?" and I shouted - "Yes, sure there is!". And when I released the trunk door lifting the trunk release button, we all bursted into laughing. What a relief it was. And then I went back to business of locating M14(now I reliaze, it was thoughts about finding M14 which blocked my mind). Amongst this emergency, I wasn't tensed because I was sure that I am not alone, with so many helpful people around. I want to thank all for the help and support. It feels nice to be among some finest people.

It was a great night indeed, for we got to see a beautiful sunset and for the first time I looked at the Milky way, not to forget some Messier Objects I could find in Cygnus and in Ophiuchus with Mark's 28 mm eyepiece. When I started out in astronomy this year, I had no idea what I'm getting into but thanks to you all helpful people, I am learning and enjoying it.