Loading the car with excitement and dreams
a shiny new camera, starmaps and scope
My heart full of expectation of what will be seen
as well as some snacks for the trip,
Grabbing the Map, not taking a nap,
keep driving towards that sky in the distance
that's starting to look so black,
Praying those clouds I see in the mirror will clear in time,
Knowing the night will be cold and sublime,
So I make up a song about Planets and Moon to while away the time
and hope I arrive at the dark site real soon,
Arrive at the site and theres not a cloud in sight,
The seeing is a nine, the night is all mine,
A buzz of excitement in the sky to explore,
Armed with maps and software you can't ignore,
High hopes to see the dawn sky feast,
A fine conjunction awaits me at least,
Alas it's bitterly cold and my teeth they chatter,
So I find me a blanket and on me I scatter,
All my delightful toys and imaging matter,
The Planets were so bright in the early morning light
as the dawn broke into bright sunlight,
I will never forget such a wonderfull sight.
then I jumped up with a hell of a fright
As the bloke next to me, turned on the light
I yelled at him come on, give me a break
Be he just smiled, and said, go bake a cake
So I told him to go coz there's kids at his scope
playing and fiddling and having a grope,
That made him run faster than the Olympian 'Amra'
and once he was gone I put in my camera,
Now with him gone it was dark once again
Our camp site was chilly but the stars they did spark,
It was so cold my telescope froze and drips of water fell off a my nose,
But i fought back the cold, with the warmth of my heart,
'coz that first glimpse of Saturn, cannot be my last.
I braved the frost as I ran over to Rob
He yelled at me to stop but I must be going deaf
Dodging a cane toad I tripped and went eeeeow
My cheek on top of it made me want to spew.
So all of Rob's imaging leads came quickly undone,
He'll never talk to me again I know- I ruined his M101.
Leads all untangled and back at my scope
I check on my laptop but the image looks soft,
I check all my gear to find out whats wrong
only to find I didn't take the dust cap off!
So I open a bottle of my finest red wine to warm my heart
while I sit back in my chair to look at the sky
I smile and think even after all the stink
it's still worth the trip to see those stars shining above me
Second night comes and the sky is so clear
I can see Magellan's Clouds and more, they look so near,
The General Public visitors come and they don't believe
that they can see Saturn and Galaxies so clear,
"It's a picture of Saturn stuck up on a screen,
something so clear cannot be seen"
"Oh no, dear sir, it's no hocus pocus,
'N' it would look better if I could teach you to focus."
Two in the morning the public's gone home
and left the dark sky to us all alone,
a mozzie just bit me, it's starting to sting
the frost is now coming to freeze everything,
As the night comes to a close,
so does this poem brought on by Ken.
Unless it revives from its death throws,
never know, we will when....
... see a Meteor woosh across the sky
reminding me why I came out here,
to see the majestic views in the sky above
and the mozzies, the cold and dewed-up gear,
Trying to sketch Omega Centauri,
Shining up there in all its glory.
Rugged up to the nines with gloves, coat and beanie,
I'm hoping one day to meet Jen, Ken and Sheeny.
Every one else from IIS too,
We'll all have a look at M42.
