very enjoyable

Fun evening at the final Member's Night at the DDO. Nicole's and Charline's talks on meteors were great. I enjoyed the time lapse video Nicole showed at the start to set the mood. I liked the subtext to Nicole's presentation: meteor showers are 'a changin'. Charline's trip to Tataouine sounded very interesting. Many shared tips and tricks. And then some members shared their meteorite collections. Neat.

The socialising afterwards was fantastic. Almost all the 48 or so people hung around for a quite while. I chatted with Drew, Ian, Van, Joel, Steve, Gilles, and others. Said hi to Grace, Shawn, and Lourdes. Took Peter's email for the Yahoo!Group. I was able to pull Nicole aside for a moment to share my latest idea. Learned it was a very small crowd at the tailgate party with a no-show that was no-surprise. And she shared a fascinating story about a mutual acquaintance. Told Ralph I almost called him the last clear night. I shot some group photos.

Received the SCOPE backissues DVD from Paul G. Received the much-needed accessories for the CAO's NexStar 11" GPS from Stuart.

Phil called a quick, impromptu meeting of CAO committee peeps, given that a bunch of us were there: we settled some details for the upcoming raffle.

When the clouds opened up briefly we took a look at Mars in the 8" Dobsonian. Spotted the ice cap.

Stuart did a great job again!