Now on vacation until January fourth.

Nothing to do but rest and have fun for a couple of weeks.

I just spent the week celebrating being married to my wife for 25 years!

We went to Las Vegas, where we had our belated honeymoon.

The place has really changed over the years.

The good news is that after two days of intense blackjack (and choking down clouds of cigarette smoke), I came out seventy bucks ahead.

Now I will try and catch up here.

Well, last night teased us with about an hour or two of black clear skies.

Without warning, the clouds moved in.

At least I can home with a handful of images.

It will take me a little while to get them posted.

Despite the best efforts of the weather forecasters, we had a pretty good night.

The high clouds from the New Mexico storms vanished and things were pretty clear.

Sure, those of us here before remember even clearer nights, but this was good.

I spent an hour drift aligning my mount and then plugged in my new "Knife Edge Focuser."

The results were just great. FOr the first time I got things focused well! The only "fly-in-the-soup was the wind would gust up and set my tube a vibrating.

We are all hoping the forecasters are wrong tonight as well.

For the great Amy Weaving [link] , I have a rabbit and a few more turtles for my wildlife photo set.

I will try to write again tomorrow.

Well, both the weather and the net connection are terrible.

Last night we finally saw some stars. Of course, the moisture in the air made it almost useless. I did manage to get the scope polar aligned.

It is possible I might get some photos tonight.

I was able to get some wildlife viewing in. I got photo of a turtle. I am wondering what kind of turtles live up here on the Black Mesa? I will try for an id when I return.

M-