Count John and me in. We would love to participate even though we aren't really members of UVAA and we live in Salt Lake county. But we don't really belong to any group, we just like to hang around with anyone who is into stars and telescopes. I think doing the presentations is a great idea since everyone should learn the things you mentioned, and no one teaches Star Gazing 101. It would be nice if some of you could con your wives or kids into coming with you once in a while. We always bring along a movie, drinks and cookies for the kids since we almost always need to bring our children with us. Maybe you could make your wives realize how educational this is, and if they learned some of it they would enjoy it as well. The out come might be them letting you spend more money on your hobby than on scrap booking supplies. : ) I know I cant be the only wife who is crazy enough to let her husband spend all the extra money on telescopes. Lisa Zeigler <http://www.johnstelescopes.com/> -----Original Message----- From: uvaa-bounces+john=johnstelescopes.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+john=johnstelescopes.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 9:33 AM To: UVAA List Subject: [UVAA] Workshop You know what I think would be fun is some evening before dark meet out at the Pit 'n Pole or the Gravel Pit and have a workshop while the sun is still up. I was thinking of doing something like this in connection with UVAA. Since UVAA doesn't have regular meetings and I get all the meetings I need at SLAS it would be kind of nice to see everybodys face in the light and people can demonstrate some aspect of astronomy that works for them; just basic stuff. You know, bring your Subway sandwiches and munch while for a while, nothing really formal. The problem with suggesting such a thing usually means the suggestor gets the job, and I dont mind as long as it doesnt become a regular job. It would probably fizzle after a while, after the willing in the group had their chance, but what the hey. There seems to be a lot of new blood in Utah Valley and Old Timers like Rich Tenney could teach us a lot (he he he). Actually everybody ought to have something that works for them and could demonstrate it. We ought to be able to show how collimation basics are really done  with and with out a laser pointer. We ought to spend some time (after the sun goes down) just pointing out constellations. We ought to show what sky chats work well, what interesting objects are in current constellations, what comets are around, asteroids, telescope building, binoculars, all kinds of fun things. I am thinking that it would have to be on an off weekend when SLAS wasnt having a Star Party and the moon didnt come up till after 10 or 11 or something. Or when the moon goes down at 2AM we could meet at 2:30 AM  uhhh. What? No taker on that one. Just throwing this out to everyone on the list to see if there is any interest. This could beat the heck out of a meeting. Even Rob on Maui could come, or better yet, Rob could through down some futons and we will visit him. Jim Do you Yahoo!? <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailtag_us/*http://mail.yahoo.com> Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam