TAAA Holiday Party

The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) held it's holiday party last night, hosted for the third year by Bill and Mary Lofquist. It was a great time and reasonably well attended by 45 or so members. We arrived fashionably late about 5:45 (listed start was 5pm) and man, we almost missed the food! And by the time we finished a lite plate I went back and managed to rescue the last 2 pieces of chocolate cheesecake that we had brought - those astronomers were starving! We ate with Bill Lofquist and Mike Terenzoni in the near darkness of Bill's observing area a little away from the festivities of the patio. The picture of Mike is a 10 second exposure!



The highlight of the evening was the "redistribution of astro-gear". Everyone was supposed to bring something from their astronomy collection for the raffle - we brought a book of which I had 2 copies. The big prize was a vintage 6" Dynascope from the 60s or 70s that member Clyde Plymate had restored. It was a beauty won by Wally, who chose to donate it to a local school, so it will see lots of use there. Also shown here is George Barber, who was perusing the raffle table before deciding on the wristwatch as his raffle prize.

Melinda was nursing a cold, so we didn't stay long in the cool evening air, but it was still nice to spend time with friends and come home with more that we left with - Melinda with her t-shirt from Starizona, me with a magazine full of pretty pictures...