I had a memorable night at Coe on Sat and thought I'd thank a few people. Its been my ambition for over a year to do something that seems simple -- see unambiguous spiral arms of a galaxy in my own scope. Apart from hints in M33, M77 and M65 I had never seen them until Saturday when M51 finally came through clearly in my 9.25 inch Celestron SCT. Other memorable first time sites were the Rosette neb(NGC 2244), Eight Burst planetary in Vela (NGC 3132) (structure galore!), M97 and the entire Leo triplet field.
Anyway, thanks are due to Jay Freeman, (for helping confirm sighting of Rosette in my daughter's Bushnell scope); Liam, Rachel and Mimi (for being good buddies for Rebecca); the gentleman w/ the 20" homemade scope (was it Charles?) for showing me an awe-inspiring view of M51 and M3; Mark Wagner (for not claiming the Foster's -- it tasted great after the long drive home); Kevin, Jamie,Phil and Doug (for being there) and everyone else.