Saturday, November 10, I attended a meeting of the leaders of Texas and New Mexico astronomy clubs to discuss the formation of a new program of public outreach that McDonald Observatory is launching. Promotion of Amateur Astronomy is foremost in this program. They're calling it Dark Skies Fellows, and it will be membership based with different benefits for different levels, kind of like how KERA structures their membership. We discussed the possible program benefits, and how astronomy clubs can help and be helped. One exciting benefit for Dark Skies Fellows is the possible use of the 36" and 82" telescopes. Other benefits for members include use of some of the new facilities being constructed now at the Texas Astronomical Education Center (TAEC), which Mike Jones gave a presentation about a few weeks ago. Full details aren't available yet, as this was a planning meeting, but I can say that I'm really excited about the prospects.

As a reward for our efforts, we got a wonderful steak dinner at the Limpia Hotel in Fort Davis, and an night on the 36" telescope. With a focal length of 483 inches, a 25 mm eyepiece yields nearly 500 power. Sure, that's well within the famous 60x per inch, but forget seeing the whole Orion Nebula in one field! The Trapezium fills a large part of it. I can't tell you how many objects we looked at, I lost count, and nobody was taking notes.

It was really nice to meet members of other regional clubs, and to get to work with them on the formation of this exciting new program that McDonald will be offering with the opening of the new TAEC. Future articles will provide more information about this, but for now, all that can be said is stay tuned!

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jumped off I-20 about 1/2 mile down a little side road. Found a very wide shoulder on a hill, parked, whipped out the lounge chairs and laid back about 3:30. Stayed until 5:00 am with very good viewing conditions. When we left, in less than 10 miles we were back under the clouds. Talk about luck.  I also found out that tri-focals are not optimum for "really wide field" viewing. Many went by in a blur. We didn't do an actual count, too busy just enjoying the show, but I would estimate that we were getting about 20 to 25 a minute at its best, which was around 4:00 or 4:30 as best as I could tell.  It was definitely worth the trip.

Scott McDonald/Fossil Rim, Tx -- I joined Michael Hibbs (TSU) and Ray Benge (TCC) at Fossil Rim in Glen Rose for the shower. I arrived at 8:15 p.m. The sky was oscillating between cloudy and somewhat clear all night long.  The first meteor of the night was incredible and took everyone by surprise just after midnight. It traveled over 100 degrees moving from east to west straight through the zenith. We all hoped this was a precursor of what was to come. During the moments we had clear skies or portions of clear sky, we enjoyed the Leonids, and a few sporadics were seen too. Everyone was looking forward to the 4 a.m. peak but between 2 and 3 a.m. the sky clouded up completely and I opted to head home. I arrived home (SW Arlington) right at 4 a.m. and luckily the sky was not totally cloudy. From 4 to 4:35 I enjoyed a rate of 3 to 6 meteors, or more, per minute even through the metromess lights, then at around 4:35 the sky clouded up and I turned in. I think it was a pretty good night considering the weather.