Fish Lake Fall Term Trip
October 28-30, 2005
This trip marked the 20th anniversary year of ASTR 203/204/205/315 class
trips to KEEC, celebrated with themed cakes. The weather for October
of 2005 was sizing up to be the driest on record, lots of clear skies.
The end of the month would follow this trend and give us two of the clearest
nights in years at Fish Lake- all night, both nights. And the end of Daylight
Saving Time on Sunday morning provided one additional hour for some much
needed sleep after those long nights. The fall colors would also run late
giving us a wonderful backdrop of oranges and reds against a blue sky.
Light winds provided warm gentle skies in which to launch our rockets.
Kevin Dehne's and Jason Gibson's G-engine rockets vaulted swiftly into
the blue and road back on shutes while Norbert's I-engine followed a usual
recovery pattern. A holloween theme added to the fun, an idea cooked
up by Sharon MacKellar and Doreen Mobley. A cookie decorating contest
brought out some remarkably talented, and edible!, artistic expression,
along with some creative costuming on short notice. Astronomy calendars
and North America at Night t-shirts served as prizes. Treks to Sam &
Jakes and to the Past Tense cider mill took place on Saturday, a tradition
now distinct as Kevin's trail hikes to the woodchip pile. The group, a
mix of EMU and Delta College students along with our regular attendees,
numbered 58 and enjoyed two breakfasts and a delicious Saturday turkey
dinner. Heavy frost coated the scopes by Saturday dawn even though
the day bore shirtsleave weather and comfortable H-alpha observations of
the sun. Evening observing was enhanced with views through EMU's Celestron
14, a host of other SCT and Dobsonian scopes, and the Saginaw Sunset Astro
Club's "Dobzilla", a 25-inch Dobsonian reflector (via Kevin Dehne and Pat
Ray) which got a mirror bath earlier on Friday. A host of faint fuzzies
came into clear, detailed view along with Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Topping the weekend off though were the best and closest views of Mars
until the year 2018! The many pictures from this trip speak for themselves...
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