Hi all, I wanted to tell you about the trip I took to Tooele County for astronomy Thursday night-Friday morning. I went to the Pit 'N Pole first, but a couple of families were camping there in trailers with at least one ORV and kids. I thought it might be a little uncomfortable for them to have someone lurking around outside all night, and besides, their lights probably would bother me. So I took off, traveling back to the road toward Faust. When I reached Utah 36 I turned south and drove a few miles past Vernon. There I found a side road, went back half a mile to a fork in the route, and set up. This turned out to be a delightful spot, with a ridge between myself and the SLC metro lights. The sky was darker than I had expected, and the air was still and clear. However, it got pretty cold after sunset and my ears were freezing. I wished I'd brought a warmer hat. I also wished I'd remembered the connections I needed to power up my guider -- all my pictures were taken without guiding, with the telescope doing its normal tracking. First I had to get the 'scope colliminated, always a distasteful and difficult chore for me. But then I had a great time. I found my targets and enjoyed looking, then photographing. The results of the photo sessions are the last page of my UtahAstronomy gallery. I had never seen M31 before, and when I had the telescope "go to" that galaxy, I had my CCD camera attached. When I tried to see it through the finder 'scope I couldn't see a galaxy. Eventually I thought I might be seeing a dim something and I aimed the telescope toward it. Then I downloaded a one-minute photo and to my astonishment, this beautiful galaxy came up. The resultant photo is about half an hour, or more, taken in the form of four different views (three colors per view) and later stacked by use of Registax. Because I had some trouble with uploading because of network problems at this end, Cynthia kindly posted them for me. They are on the last page of my album. The URL is: http://www.utahastronomy.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=Joeb Best wishes, Joe