Even with the bad weather and tragic national events, approximately 300 people attended the 5^th Annual North Texas Skywatch Star Party at Mineral Wells State Park on Sept 22, sponsored by Tarleton State University.  There were 30 telescopes, including a 30 inch dob.  Talks included How to Choose a Telescope, Meteor Showers and the Up-Coming Leonids, Meteorites, and Introductory Astronomy.  The weather was not very cooperative, but it finally cleared around midnight.  About 75 or more stalwarts had stayed, so they got in some good viewing.

Tom Pugh and his daughter stayed until 10:30 PM.  About 9 PM they got a small break overhead and to the northeast.  He and Thomas Williamson spent about 30 minutes with a high school science class from Aledo.  They managed to show the group M13, M31 and the double in Eta Cassiopeia through the light cloud cover.

The following morning, around 6:00 AM in Mineral Wells, Tom set the scope up and looked at Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and the Orion Nebula before daylight.  The sky was crystal clear!  Wish it would have been that clear the previous evening.  Oh well!

The Star Walk at Copper breaks on Sept 15 also suffered from bad weather and the national events, but we managed to have a little fun anyway.  Four FWAS members were there to help out--Steve Richer, Steve Gray, Richard Brown, and Fred Koch.  Richard and Fred maintain "dual citizenship" with the Dallas club and are  primary sponsors of the astronomy program at Copper Breaks.  The 2 Steves got to meet some other fun people from the Dallas club, noted ATM Bruce Sayre and his wife from California, David and Geri Turner from the park, and a few area residents who came in spite of everything! 

The most successful observing was accomplished on the device shown in the pictures, called the SunSpotter.  It guides the sun's image through an optical path that puts about a 3 inch image of the sun on a white piece of paper.  You can very clearly see sunspots, and trace the image onto the paper as you look at it.  One area man came specifically wanting to see sunspots, and that's about all there was to see!  The clouds and rain rolled in just as we finished setting up the first Obsession Dob.

After we got back to the campsites, we realized that although there were thunderheads and lightning all around the horizon, a hole opened up directly overhead for about an hour.  Several of us pulled out the binoculars and got some great views of the Milky Way, M13, M31, the Coat Hangar.