The pre-trip forecasts were certainly gloomy given the slow moving cuttoff Low that was working its way towards Michigan for the weekend. Could the gurus be wrong? Would it be rain, rain, and more rain? Fortunately, no! In fact, the rains didn't arrive until pretty much everyone left by noon Sunday. Clouds would prevail most of Friday night though Jack gave an impromptu tour of the winter stars when a hole opened up for the diehards still up late. A few of the guys sampled the cuisine of Imlay City during the dinner hour. Saturday morning and afternoon provided some peeks at the sun through the mostly cloudy skies, allowing for most of our activities to stay dry. Kevin led a precession of the curious off into the woods on his walk o' death. Thankfully, all returned to venture on to Past Tense cider mill, Dairy Queen, and Sam & Jake's. A string of 5 rockets left the hilltop pad at 3:30pm, from an E motor through H, all providing a nice flight. Even Jason's G-powered spool rocket which had some dancing around for a few exciting seconds. The H motor rocket powered through an opening in the clouds and arched over beautifully a couple thousand of feet above before drifting away for good (as did the other rockets). A turkey dinner followed by Sharon's annual Holloween costume/cookie contest filled the early evening. It's always neat to see the artistic talent that presents itself during this recent Fish Lake ritual. And Dave stole the show with his cowboy/horse getup, or should we say "giddy-up"? What a hoot! Oh, shall we sing another round of happy birthday to Lisa? Meanwhile, would the clouds hold Saturday night, too? No wait... a big opening at 7:30!! Hurry... It's clear... for now. Hastily set up scopes gave the EMU ASTR 203/205/315, Delta College, and WCC students in attendance a look-see after all. Success! Telescopic views of globulars, galaxies, and a constellation tour were squeezed into the hour+ that we had, yippy. All was not lost. Mike was even able to reestablish the operation of the all-sky fireball camera/computer in that brief time. And unlike some treks of past it was NOT clear Sunday night after we got home so we didn't feel so bad after all. Mayhaps more luck with the Spring '09 trip, eh?

Photos from Norbert Vance with rocket images from Sharon Vance, Jason Gibson, and Jon Mills

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