I wanted to tell you this story. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but it was exciting.
Tuesday afternoon, when I walked into my film lab to get the aurora shots, nobody was at the counter. I just sat down and a minute later I heard from the adjacent room "Ken's in the back mounting three rolls of slides loaded with fabulous shots of the aurora". So I got up and started waving through the window and pointing at myself. Ken brought them out and all the employees were gathered around the light board at the counter. One of the employees said "Ken, give the customer his slides and let him look at them first". Unbeknownst to me, one of the guys that works at the lab, Bob, is the astronomer at the Bruneau Dunes Observatory. He gave me free passes. When he saw the web site I put up, he e-mailed and asked permission to use the photos in his State Parks program at the observatory. So last night I was able to attend the first 45 minute program where the photos were projected on the slightly curved wall of the educational center, about 25 feet across. There were two programs, each with an audience of about 50 people. I was able to make a few brief comments at the first one. Afterwards, the Parks guy and Bob suggested that I could be a volunteer next year at the observatory. Bob, who is a pretty accomplished astrophotographer, from what I can tell, offered to make available to me, several items I had expressed an interest in, namely a solar filter for getting sunspot photos and a motorized tracking mount to use for the upcoming Leonid meteor shower. I got to look through a number of nice scopes too, including the 25" diameter big scope at the observatory. That's it. It was a great experience. Tom C. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
