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It was a very fun and unusual night at Eagle Bluff. First off the parking lot was so full of cars that it looked like we had drove into a parking lot at a Twins game. But the lights were off , and we got in about a half an hour when Boom! the lights came on. There was a scholarship fund raising event coming to an end and it took an hour before the folks all cleared out. We used the time to do some impromtue outreach and showed the public Jupiter with four moons close by the planet. One lady told me she had never taken much interest in "astrology" and thanked me for letting her look through my microscope. Others took a very keen interest and we may see some newcomers at a meeting soon.
Then the lights went off and we got down to business. I found 103P Hartley and just kept tracking that while I looked at other objects thru Randy's, Jeff's and Kirk's scopes. I got real good movement on the comet during the 4 hours I tracked it. I also got a good position on asteroid 6 Hebe.
Randy did a tour of planetary nebulas, (The Cat's Eye was incredible! M27 also) we tried out my 13mm Televu Ethos, and Luka's wide field 38mm eyepiece (I want one bad!) and I had 3 astronomical firsts last night. I saw NGC 604, an emission nebula in another galaxy (M33) thru Kirk's scope, quasar 3C 465 in Pegasus thru Randy's and ate freshly popped popcorn at 11 p.m. compliments of Randy and his handy trailer. That hit the spot! It was AGNFA!!