Dr. Zubrin congradulates Patt Czarnik, telescope winner.

The Mars Society's first Mars Spectacular lived up to it's name. There were over 40 attendees each of three days, with nearly a dozen large scopes. This adds up to well over 100 human visitors to Mars (SIM). Some folks camped out with binoculars, Meade, and of course; Celestron telescopes.

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) had one final grand tour of the Universe with it's 11-inch Celestron. A number of fans, as well as Dr. Zubrin himself, ran it through the Messier objects; galaxies and stellar Nebuli. All of this through Utah's spectaculary clear evenings.

A quick rain Saturday night didn't dampen spirits, and the skies were clear quite quickly.

We were awed by the fantastic clarity of the skies. Even seasoned Astronomers were impressed by this weekends viewing. The Mars Society was also glad to welcome our newest equipment for the Musk Observatory; a new 14" Celestron. The literature sugests it's portable. I for one am glad this enormous lens was mounted safely in the sturdy Musk Observatory dome.

Amateurs and Astronomers alike were so busy testing out the large Celestrons capabilities, that we wore the Dome batteries down completely, on all three evenings.

Still pictures and moving images of Mars should be made available to the Mars Society website soon. In the meantime, I've attached a picture of this year's raffle winner, Patt Czarnik from the Houston Chapter. She's shown here with Robert Zubrin, right there at the MDRS Hab site, both of them smiling over her prize new Celestron telescope.

I should have more to report on the weekends events, but for now, this is Kevin Burgess, signing off from Mars (well... Hanksville, Utah anyway).