On my way up the hill to Mt pinos on Friday afternoon, I encountered another driver whom I followed into the parking lot. As I did so, the driver kicked it and sped away from me and parked his vehicle. I decided to have a closer look, and it was none other than Linton, a fellow observer. He got out of his vehicle, and walked over to me and said, "Oh, Rod, it's you, I thought I was being chased by a terrorist!"
As nightfall ensued, Linton, in an apparent tradition, proceeded to perform the "Dances With Wolves" dance around his 14.5" starmaster as necessary to pay homage to the greatness of his telescope. I decided to keep a safe distance in case he decided to make a human sacrifice to the great god of Zambuto.
The dance performed by Linton evidently wasn't enough to appease the gods and we were therefore appropriately punished. Throughout the evening, Linton and I were subjected to as many as fifty boyscout caravans, all appearing well after dark, illuminating the evening with their pickups, mimivans, and assorted night-time-device penetrators. Rolling backpacks with attached halogen headlights, and various multiple humanoid forms in varying shapes and sizes, all equipped with their own personal, mega-kilowatt photon polluters. Adding to this daylight delight was the occasional 25 mph wind gust for guaranteed sailing sessions with our dobs.
Linton and I managed a few observations between each assault, and we past the time by discussing how Floyd Blue was likely enjoying himself at the wind-protected preserve known as werewolves pass. I was thinking to myself, "I wonder which eyepiece Floyd is testing now while we get blitzed."
Just when the wind and the fifty troops of boyscouts finally settled down, several specimens of the latter made their way over to our scopes and lined-up for a look through Linton's 14.5" and my 16" dob. We showed them Saturn and they were thrilled with the image. So were we as Saturn was looking good, in fact, it was looking downright superb. I was thinking "now it's time to take out the 5X powermate with a 4mm ortho and crank it up! But no, we had we had to provide quality star time to our guests and Linton decided to provide a lecture on the evolution of the universe. At this point, I'm thinking, "do I need to get milk and cookies? How about popcorn? Floyd Blue doesn't have to put up with this so why should I? In fact, right about now, Floyd is probably eating that stuff himself and here we have to serve it! I'm thinking Floyd's experience tonight is probably great while we can't get a break. There was no way we could possibly have a better experience than Floyd. Floyd was definetly winning and he didn't even know he was in the race.
During an intermission, Linton and I had some of the greatest views of Thor's helmut and the rosette nebula that I've ever seen. The latter was truly spectacular with incredible views of rolling nebulosity of the rosette. It was definetly worth the price of admission with my eyes being penetrated by photon after photon with such piercing poignancy of crystalline delight! Faster and faster with more and more photon than Linton's starmaster had ever provided before until I screamed yes, Yes! YES! During that climatic moment, Floyd Blue definetly did NOT have a better experience than me!
Alas, we paid the price and the winds returned and seeing turned to ----. DSO observing became nearly impossible when a HUGE motorhome arrived in the middle of the night and parallel-parked right next to my vehicle despite my frantic wave-off attempts. Another scout-a-teer want-a-be who gets out of his home on rollers, walks around the lot with a beacon and comes full circle in front of our scopes. I asked the guy to turn-off his lights and he tells me he "doesn't have cat's eyes and he's looking for his RV!" I guess that fact that his motorhome looked like the Titanic helped disguise it...
Next time out, I'm going to Floyd's spot in the wind-protected preserve of werewolves pass. The name of the latter has been changed to protect it's identity.
All other events, whether reinacted or created, depict authenticated facts...
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