Thank you so much Ron for a very enjoyable night. My very first star party!
I ran out of the car, narrowly dogged a random piece of pipe where his pretend observatory is,
and straight into big hugs with Ron as it was our first meeting. I felt like a tube of toothpaiste
. Honestly, how could it get any better
- Ron's gorgeous deck which I sat on plenty right through the night to take in that gorgeous sky, his 16" scope and showing us around the sky, a green laser pointer which I've never seen being operated (and just between you and me, I wasn't trusting the operators either
), a nice hot cup of Dilmah tea and apple pie inside, great company, and a planned surprise visit by JJJ, Terry, Tony and Shelley. I have been eagerly waiting to meet and hug JJJ & Ron for the last 12 months, seeing them both for the first time was very emotional for me. And meeting Shelley for the first time, I was soooo excited. Terry and Tony, I've met before and I was really looking forward to seeing them again too. I secretly think Tony likes me to chase him down for a hug him because I have to force myself onto him and say, "come here Tony",
and I reckon between you and me (ahah) that he really really likes it
. Thank you Terry for driving everyone over to Ron's. I tried to yell that out to you when you leaving but you didn't hear me.
I didn't know astro people gate crashed other peoples parties
. It's scary having gate crashers in the dark. Oh and did I forget to mention they crashed instyle by turning their headlights on to us
And Ron knew all along who they were but not letting on to me. I was a bit scared
, as I didn't know who these four people were that were walking up the path to us
. Ron's Nagler T-1 could have been a good defence weapon of choice.
I will never forget seeing the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time through my scope and Ron even gave my a beautiful laminated copy of a photo of it. I will treasure both the memory and the memento gift. And wow, I have never seen my scope drip with soooo much water
, but that was quickly fixed as Ron was straight onto it with a hair dryer
.
Randall, I am so sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you, I see now, Rob's imaging area is where you disappeared to.
I enjoyed seeing RobF's raw pic come thru of M33, my first time around an imager
. I love Rob's work so much, I felt very proud to be there and see that image, sorry if it sounds corny, but I do feel that way Rob.
And Rob is another one that I have waited so long to see, a really nice guy. Thank you Rob for your company. He even offered me some twisties, but telling him how nasty they were for you didn't seem to stop him from putting more in his mouth. I had 3, Rob ate the whole pkt, yes he did.
I couldn't believe it. Next he'll be telling me there full of air and not filling
. I wonder if that's how he got his energy to drive the two hour trip home that early in the morning.
We hoped to catch the supernova viewing around 1.30, but alas the clouds moved in and took over, and the fog, wow, it was eeeeeerie. We left at around 2am and got home at 4am.
And I even got to hold and look thru a type1 Nagler. Blooming heck that was a heavy eyepiece. I'm sure if I put that on my dob i could use the tube as a see-saw
.
What a happy night. Thank you Ron for being a fantastic host. You are a very dear and treasured friend.
Kind regards,
Suzy.
EDIT: P.S. Paul, I am so sorry I missed you. I have been just as eager to catch up with you as well. But I understand that you had to be on scope guard duty. Hopefully, we'll meet soon.
what a Report No way can I top that
