Go West Young Man (With Your Scope)

Greetings from Colorado! Well so far on my trip I have dodged tornados, endured thunder storms, experienced a clutch failure on my truck and saw one very awsome night sky all in the first 24 hours! I have been kind of busy and where I staying right now waiting for the Rocky Mountain Star Stare to open has only dial up so I will be lucky to post the text to this story. When my clutch is fixed I will get my self to a wifi spot and send it all. I was able to take a look at the Sun yesterday through cloud cover so not much to report.The backyard has a grand Backdrop. It is Pikes peak towering a fraction over 14,000 ft. The mountain is still covered with a pretty good amount of snow in mid June.The wonderful thing about Colorado is the diverse views it affords one I look west and I see a majestic set of mountains. I look east and I see the High rolling plains of eastern Colorado. The song, "America the Beautiful" was conceived on a trip up Pikes peak. I can see the purple Mountains. I can see the fruited plains. It is a wonderful spot on this planet. Hey all that stuff is just Icing. Now if you know me, I do love the icing but I am here to talk about cake! That cake is the Dark Skies of Colorado. I was out in a 4X4, dropping my son off to spend the night at my nieces. They have about thirty acres of darkness sitting about 35 miles east of Colorado Springs. Bless their souls and their neighbors,They did not have any mercury vapor lights going. The sky was a sheet of black velvet with tiny diamonds scattered upon it. I could see Scorpius well as well as Corvus. Corvus really showed up as a mainline Constellation. Leo and Virgo were up and ready to deliver a bevy of galaxies to ponder over. Rats!I was so tired I had to get some sleep. I am looking froward to see what these dark skies will deliver to this humble astronomer and his humble scope.(OK 8 inches is not a super humble scope) I will be posting when I can throughout the week. I know not the norm, but this is not a normal trip either. So stay tuned

Clear skies and great seeing too,

Steve T