Re: Deerlick Astronomy Village in Georgia

Having a telescope or belonging to a club does not automatically make someone a nice person. I have lost eyepieces while participating in two different local clubs during private club observing sessions where only club members were present. That ended my interest in astro clubs. I continued hosting star parties in public parks, with school, church and boy & girl scout groups without incident, wrote a local newspaper observing column and participated in the ALPO observing program, having some of my work selected for publish. The recent discussions here per observing at Mt Pinos in CA illustrate that not all telescope users are nice people. Today I continue to thrill the neighborhood children and passers-by with views thru my scopes, but stay away from clubs.

That's just awful. My experiences differ and if you find yourself in Dallas or the north Texas area, I'll invite you to accompany me, my gear and my dog up to the club's site in southern Oklahoma. If not for club membership, I'd go begging for better than my home white zone for a suitable observing site. The local club experience has been essential to me.
Good folks, and their opposite, are found everywhere. Bad experiences in one location should not disqualify all locations from consideration. Just my opinion, others' carry = weight.