We had hopes that one of two nights would clear off but, alas, nothing doing.  What had been a clear, dry beginning of the month gave way to day after day of grey and occasional showers.  Still, a pretty good size group arrived on Friday with the 'early birds' getting to view Mars through some holes in the clouds.  The highlights would then have to be the ever popular Dehne trek through the woods, Jeff Wilson's excellent, thought-provoking presentation on crop circles, the trip to Sam and Jake's tool store, and the rocket launches. Surprise, surprise- those that braved the entire weekend were treated to Sunday morning breakfast views of two of the largest sunspot (#486, # 488) groups to ever be seen at the same time on the sun as clouds parted for a pretty blue morning sky ( so, technically, it wasn't a complete wash...).  Those larger-than-Jupiter sunspots had been producing brilliant aurorae all the way to Texas and Florida- no such luck at Fish Lake.  Arg, better luck next time.  Unfortunately, light pollution will no doubt increase even more, as it slowly has been over the years, as downtown Lapeer puts the finishing touches on their 'beautification' project.  Sadness as once pristine skies suffer the scourge of ever expanding cities and suburbs in the region. The skies are still much better than those on campus, but ...  By the way, the red/white/blue rocket??  It was retreived from the grasp of a dead pine and will fly once again in March.  See ya'll then!

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