The Arcane Astronomers converged on the Cleburne gathering again this year. The afternoon skies were completely overcast, but we sacrificed Ricky on a burning tripod and the star gods favored us with marginally clear skies until 3am. There was a fun, inquisitive crowd this year. Roy assisted fellow Dobs owners with his new-fangled laser collomator (much to the dismay of someone else who was trying to sell a similar device!).

Between the moon, haze and 99% humidity, there just wasn't much exotic viewing to share. Jupiter and Saturn were the crowd pleasers. Some nebulosity was granted: Ring, Viel and Dumbell. The Blue Snowball eluded us until Kevin nailed-it for us in Roy's scope.

Several of our scopes went down with all hands on deck by 1am owing to the severe dew. In order to avoid Coast Guard cititations, life preservers will be provided on the next outing.

The Arcane Astronomers this trip were: Doug, Greg, Kevin, LB, Ricky, Roy and Wally. We wore silly tshirts sporting the "Arcane Astronomers" name and glow-in-the-dark logos. Man, are we a bunch of geeks or what! Yeah, that's what Monica said...

October 1997 (See Photos)

Having been bit with the astronomy bug, we ventured off to the North Texas Amatuer Astronomer's Star Party held at Cleburne State Park in October 1997. There was a good crowd and samples of everything from binos to 24" monster Dobs. Ricky, Roy, LB, John and Wally made the outing. For more info on the 1998 Star Parties, see Michael Hibbs' Skywatch page.