Just back from last night's star party at Bryce Canyon. With that experience fresh on my mind I can't help but add to this thread that Bryce is an incredible place to observe from. While it's true that skies over other continental US sites have been shown to be darker than Bryce, the difference is very small. Plus Bryce rangers and staff do star parties several times a month and always welcome help from other amateurs (amateurs who can be granted free access to the park in return for their help). As long as I talking about Bryce, I've got to mention the Perseid meteors we saw last night. The outdoor part of my program ran from 10:00 to midnight and during that time we saw several early Perseids, most of which were quite bright and one which streaked through the sky and exploded at the zenith with a pulse of light that lit up the country side. That last one's train lasted for several minutes. Alas no sonic boom was heard so it must have broken up on the edge of the atmosphere. And a big thanks to Fox News. I was about half way to Bryce yesterday when the shuttle was about to launch so I surfed all of the news stations on Sirius Satellite Radio. Most ignored the launch. A couple had network "talking heads" talking over the NASA TV audio. But Fox News broadcast nothing but NASA TV's audio from about 5 minutes before launch until main engine cut off without a single reporter breaking in to tell us what NASA was saying. Kudos to Fox News. Ok, it's 6:00 and there's another star party tonight (Utah Diabetes Camp in Tooele http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=1074 ) which, hopefully many of you will be helping out with, so I guess I ought to turn in. Nigh, night! Patrick