For those of you who were able to schedule going out to Copper Breaks last month until inclement weather intervened I wish to express my thanks. Sometime before next season we should be able to work on some improvements at the Star Walk site. David Turner previously told me of his desire to eliminate some of the bushes and trim the tree. And perhaps by then David will have recruited an army of horned toads to decimate the red ants beds. We will find the additional space useful I suspect.

There will be two more Obsession 25" scopes as these instruments with premium Galaxy mirrors were available as a package. I am considering having them fitted with the new ServoCat GoTo and tracking system along with the Argo Navis digital  setting  circles.     Please see    http://www.
globaldialog.com/~obsessiontscp/Servocat.html. At present such a system can not compensate for field rotation that the current 25" with Equatorial Platform can. However, with one instrument platform potentially available for imaging and/or photography the lost of this capability is perhaps not too important. These will be the largest scopes available for a while. While one 30" mirror has been ordered priority was requested to be given to a pair of 22" mirrors designated for the f/5 binocular telescope currently being constructed by Bruce Sayre in California. There are a total of three 30" scopes (Dave Kriege is stopping production of these instruments indefinitely and we were able to obtain the last two) but mirrors for the latter two have not yet been ordered. I frankly would be surprised if the first 30" mirror becomes available next year but that may still happen.

We can, I believe, count on the 12 1/2" binocular scope finally being available next year and with a dedicated Equatorial Platform. The hold-up with the 22" binocular scope probably will be in the mirrors (in the "home stretch" for the first pair) rather than in the instrument per se.

The 8" f/9 refractor will be delivered shortly after I return from Australia in mid-December but a pier needs to be selected to handle it and an Astro Physics 1200 mount. This refractor is something of an innovation in that it mates optics from TMB with a new carbon fiber tube from RC Optics so I am hoping that in spite of the length its lighter weight will allow relatively easy handling. I also hope that this instrument will find some use for CCD images be they still or video. There is now a Stellacam EX astronomical video camera purportedly is sensitive to deep sky objects without the need for a separate photomultiplier tube such as the I 3 Piece. If this works out, it means another option for those visitors less than inclined to ascend ladders.

There will be other bells and whistles along the way but for now these are the most salient ones. We are not trying to grow the Star Walk/ Sun Fun programs fast or big simply because it might be possible to do so. Rather, the priority is on the quality of the experience we can offer to the public as individuals or in groups and to the Star Guides who are crucial to this endeavor. Both Richard and I would encourage any and all to offer their thoughts and feelings as to ways we can continually improve on our joint endeavor. Hopefully in years hence all of us will be able to look at what has grown out of our efforts and take considerable pride in the benefit brought for many.