March 11-14 1999 (photos)

Ricky, Roy, Greg & Betty and Wally headed for the 'Griffin to try out Ricky's new Camper for the weekend. Weather was foul until Saturday morning. We did manage to crawl out of the camper in time to participate in the Longhorn Branding. Afterwards, we took a leisurely hike up to the visitor's center (at approximately 3mph standard Garmin GPS pace) and explored the old fort.

And don't believe anything these guys tell you about Saturday night! That was some other guy named Wally...

Ft. Griffin 1998 Geminids

December 12, 13, 14 1998 (photos)

Ricky, Roy, Wally, Kevin Doug-M and Doug-R (AKA The Acrcane Astronomers) headed for the 'Griffin to enjoy the 1998 Geminid meteor shower. This was a perfect weekend as a cold front had just blown through and left us with amazing seeing and clear skies horizon to horizon. Saturday night we setup at the flagpole and enjoyed a few hours of star-hopping before the meteors picked-up. A group of Boy Scouts from Abeline dropped by to get a look at the stars an planets. After some debate, we convinced everyone that unlike the hazards portrayed in popular hollywood movies, "No, meteors are not likely to kill you this evening." I reckon we also pitched some tall tales about constellations while we were at it, but that's why were called arcane... I wmped-out after much whining about the bitter cold and crawled into the truck to sleep for the rest of the night.

Sunday afternoon, Ricky and I goofed-off and played horse-shoes (watch-out: Ricky is a ringer. Uh-huh, never played before?) Doug arrived later in the afternoon and pitched camp with us. We setup cots/sleeping bags to view the show. The meteors that evening were incredible. We kept count up to somewhere around 500 (~150/hour) and then just kicked-back to watch. Ricky served some HBR to keep everyone warm through the evening. I fell asleep for a couple hours and woke-up around 4:30am. There were meteors everywhere in the sky for thirty minutes! We are psyched for next year already...

Ft. Griffin Mini Star Party:
July 1998

Ricky, Roy, Joseph and Wally  (aka: The Arcane Astronomers) headed for the dark skies during July's new moon. Little did we know that Ft. Griffin State Park is such a popular astronomical site: A group from the Houston Astronomical Society was there to nail comets and the Fort Worth Sidewalk Astronomers were down in the park with a star party.

We setup Roy's new 14" dobs, Ricky's 8" C8 SCT, Wally's twin 80's and several binos to go around. This of course was all dwarfed by the H.A.S. group's aperature armada:  24" Dobs, several 12"/14"/18" dobs and the robo-scope.

This was three full nights of clear skies and perfect seeing (you shoud have bailed on the Canada trip, Kevin!).

Wally kicking-back...

   Josef setting-up shop.

   The Interociter: Roy's new 14" Dobs.

   Ken, from the Houston group, and the 24" Dobs.

  The rest of the Houston group setting-up for the evening.

Our first outing to the park. Ricky, Roy, Josef, Cindy, John and Wally made this inaugural trip and immediately decided the skies would never again be dark enough back home...

Setting-up: Ricky's C8 SCT, Roy's 4" Newt, and Wally's twin 80's.
 

Twilight: Wally, Roy, Ricky, Cindy, Joseph and John.