Home-made rockets seem to be another connecting thread for this group, besides telescopes. I have a home-printed and developed B&W photo of a rocketry meet at Brighton High from sometime in the '70's, at which I won a second-place award with my own "boost-glider" design. This came only after several years of paper-towel-tube failures and punctuated successes, plus a few second-degree hand and finger burns! Commercially made solid fuel engines were a relief to my mother after my early designs using black powder (!) One success in particular- we lived on 13th east and 6th south in SLC, and I launched a 2-stage rocket from my front yard. My little brother and his entourage of neighborhood cronies were the "recovery crew". The first stage was recovered only a few yards away, but the second stage, with it's parachute, was being carried eastward, and quite high at that. The recovery team began their chase, and didn't return for about an hour- but when they came back they did have the upper stage with them. My brother said they had to chase it almost to University Village (student housing apartment complex) on the corner of Sunnyside Avenue and Foothil Drive, about 2 miles downrange! -Chuck "Von Braun" Hards ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs