Night Vision - Part 3

So, after all the research I've described in previous posts below, one overarching fact became obvious to me. If I wanted the best possible views of planets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies in a relatively inexpensive package, then I should buy the biggest possible Dobsonian Reflector.

Here's an example of a 10" Dob from Orion Telescopes. It only costs about $500.00 before any accessories are added. And the only extras it might need are additional eyepieces, a better finder scope and maybe an improved focuser if you're picky about such things. The only trouble with this is that it is 10" in diameter and 4' long and weighs 55 pounds.

If portability wasn't an issue for me, then this is probably the telescope I would have purchased.

But, because I really wanted something portable and have been having fantasies about taking a telescope camping with us, I had to come up with another plan.

I started looking at either refractors or cassegrain scopes, but those tend to have either small diameter apertures or long focal lengths which mean they are better at viewing planets and the moon than they are at DSOs like nebulae or star clusters. Since I wanted to look at everything I could in the sky I knew that a standard refractor or cassegrain probably wasn't going to work for me.

Eventually I decided to purchase the 120ST refractor from Orion telescopes. The 120ST can either be purchased as a package, with a mount, tripod and eyepieces or it can be purchased as a simple optical tube assembly (OTA). The name of this telescope, the "120ST" means that the objective lens is 120mm in diameter (about 4.7") and that it is a Short Tube scope. The focal length is only 600mm long which gives it a focal ratio of f/5.

The fact that this is a 120mm f/5 scope means that it has some interesting characteristics. Some of these are benefits and others are drawbacks. The 120mm diameter lens is a definite plus because that is large enough to start getting some somewhat good views of deep space objects. At the same time, because the tube is so short, at only a bit longer than 2' and because the OTA only weighs about 8.6lbs, it is pretty darn portable. It's what amateur astronomers like to call: "Grab-n-Go". Also, because it is a short f/5 it should provide very wide fields of view, allowing the user to see large swaths of the sky at low to medium levels of magnification.

However, there is a big draw back. A scope like this will not be nearly as good as an f/8 or f/9 scope at viewing the planets and the moon. There are two reasons for this. First, because magnification power results from dividing the focal length of the OTA by the focal length of the eyepiece, a short tube scope has a hard time generating big magnifications. It isn't impossible, it just means that you either need a very small eyepiece or a special "barlow" lens which provides additional magnification.

The bigger drawback is this: Color Aberration (CA). This happens when you point a short tube refractor at a bright object (like a planet). What happens is that the light coming into the lens is bent at much sharper angles in an f/5 refractor than in an f/9 refractor. When the light is bent like this some wavelengths at the purple end of the spectrum are sent off at a slightly different angle than the rest of the light. The result is that you will see a purple halo around bright objects.

So, I had to decide if this was a big deal for me. In truth there are only a limited number of really bright objects in the sky to look at. Planets are interesting, but Mercury is hard to see anyway, Venus is kind of boring to look at and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are both hard to find and not very bright. So, the only problems the 120ST would really have would be for The Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. That's only 4 objects out of all the hundreds of other less bright objects in the sky.

(Addendum: This isn't precisely true. Stars can also be interesting to look at, especially if they are in clusters or if you are trying to "split" close binary stars. That does add a lot more bright and possibly problematic objects I might want to look at through the scope.)

But, even if that is a problem, it turns out that there are two solutions to fix (mostly if not completely) the color aberration problem. First, you can get a special filter which fits on your eyepiece which filters out all the purple so you can't see it anymore (or at least you see a lot less of it.) These filters cost between $50 and $150 dollars depending on how good an effect you want. I've been eying a more expensive filter here.

Second you can also partially solve this problem by changing the focal ratio of your telescope. If you can somehow turn your f/5 scope into an f/7 or f/8 scope, then a big chunk of the color aberration problem goes away. This is how it works. The lens of the 120ST is 120mm in diameter. The focal length is 600mm. 600/120=5 which gives you an f/5 scope. But, if you place a cap over the main lens with an 80mm hole in the center of it, then now you have an 80mm lens. 600/80 = 7.5. So now, just by covering up part of the lens you have magically converted an f/5 scope to become an f/7.5 scope which should have much fewer problems with color aberration. It is true that, because of the smaller aperture, the image will be a bit dimmer, but planets and the moon are pretty bright anyway so that shouldn't be a big deal.

So, the long and short of it is that I decided on the 120ST because it was light, portable and, in theory, should provide nice images of deep space objects. Its ability to view the moon and the planets is problematic because of the fore mentioned problems, but these difficulties are not insurmountable and there are cost effective workarounds to solve them.

When I came to these conclusions I was finally settled that this was the scope I wanted. So I made a post on the Cloudy Nights forums describing my decision making process and asking for advice on how to optimize this portable scope to be good (but not necessarily great) multipurpose scope for viewing the moon, planets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.

I got some great advice from that thread, which helped me finalize all my decisions about exactly what I wanted, including eyepieces and other accessories. That thread can be found here. I won't bother to summarize it all again since this post is already long enough.

Suffice to say that after months of research I finally decided on exactly what I wanted out of a telescope and last week I ordered it. As I write this my new scope and almost all the accessories are on a FedEx truck to be delivered later today. The only thing I won't have yet is the eyepiece I bought, which was on back order and will be shipped later this week.

Night Vision - Part 2

The more I read about telescopes this past fall and winter, the more confused I got about which type of scope I wanted to get for our family. It took me a long time and a lot of research to find one that met my requirements. There are 3 main types of scopes.

Refractors are what one typically thinks of when imagining a telescope. They have a big lens in the front (the part facing up) and an eyepiece in the back. The lens magnifies the image and focuses it down to the eyepiece where you see it. A small refractor is what Galileo used to see the moons of Jupiter for the first time. They typically offer smallish diameter lenses anywhere from 1" to 6" and can be anywhere from 2' to 4' long (although I have seen refractors more than 10' long, but they are rare). They require a very sturdy tripod to keep the scope stable.

Reflectors were invented by Newton. They are tubes with a bowl shaped mirror in the rear end which reflects and focuses the light back up to an eyepiece in the front. Amateur models are typically 6" to 12" in diameter and 4' to 5' long and very heavy. They have considerably greater light gathering power than refractors, but are bulkier. Also, Dobsonian models do not require a sophisticated tripod, but have a rather simplistic (and less expensive) base.

Cassegrain models have both a lens in the front end AND a mirror in back. This allows the light to pass back and forth along the tube offering a longer focal length in a smaller tube. They are lighter and more portable than the other models, but require regular adjustments to keep the lenses and mirrors all lined up. The process of lining up all the lenses and/or mirrors is called "collimation".

Focal Length simply means the distance between the lens/mirror and the eyepiece. Focal ratio is the ratio between the diameter of the lens/mirror and the focal length. For refractors and reflectors this just means the diameter of the lens/mirror divided by the length of the tube. Cassegrain models have a longer focal length because light is bounced 3 times back and forth from one end of the tube to the other. This means that Cassegrain models have smaller physical tubes, but have much longer focal lengths than reflectors or refractors. Refractors will typically have a focal ratio usually ranging from f/7 to f/9 with f/8 being about average. Reflectors usually have a shorter ratio at around f/5 and Cassegrain models have a longer ratio at about f/10 to f/12. In all cases there are models with longer or shorter focal ratios than average, but these are about average as far as I can tell.

Focal length is important because the smaller the ratio the wider the field of view you achieve but with less magnifying power. The larger the ratio the more amplifying power you achieve. Longer focal length scopes are capable of greater magnification, but narrow fields of view. Also, as you increase magnifying power you decrease the brightness of an object.

Magnifying power is calculated by dividing the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece you're using. So, with the same eyepiece an f/10 scope will deliver more magnifying power than an f/5 scope. But the f/5 scope will deliver a wider field of view with a brighter overall (although smaller) image with that same eyepiece.

What this means is that, if you are looking at a small, bright object (like a planet) you want to have a long focal length and a narrow field of view. That way you can achieve a high magnifying power and make the planet look really big and get a lot of detail in your image. The high magnifying power will make the planet look less bright, but planets are very bright anyway so being less bright isn't a big deal.

However, if you want to look at large, dim objects like nebulae, star clusters or galaxies, a high magnifying power will reduce their brightness so much that you may not be able to see them anymore. In these cases you want to have a short focal length and (because some of these objects are quite large, you want to have a wide field of view. Thus you want to have a low magnifying power to increase the brightness (rather than the size) of the object.

What all of this means is that telescopes with a long focal length are very good at giving you a large, detailed image of planets and other telescopes are better at giving you a wider field view of dim, further away objects like galaxies and nebulae and star clusters.

However, all other things being equal, the larger the diameter of the telescope, the more light gathering power it has and the more it will show you of just about everything. So, as a general rule of thumb, refractors and Cassegrain telescopes have longer focal lengths and give better images of planets than they do of other Deep Space Objects (DSO's). Big, heavy Newtonian scopes are much better at bringing out the details of DSO's but have a pretty short focal length and don't necessarily have the magnification power of longer focal length scopes. But, because they have so much more diameter, Newtonians are better all around at seeing everything you might want to see in the sky. Also, Dobsonian Newtonian scopes are the least expensive scope to buy because their mounting bases are so easy to manufacture and because mirrors are much cheaper ot make than lenses are. But, these types of scopes are also really big and heavy. They don't call them "light buckets" for nothing.

It took me several weeks to fully understand everything I just wrote up above. Once I started to grasp these basics it helped me to decide what I wanted out of a scope for our family. After a while I came up with these criteria for what I wanted:

1. Portability (I want to be able to take it camping with us)
2. Ability to see DSO's along with planets
3. Low cost (or as low as possible / reasonable)
4. Low maintenance and will last a lifetime
5. Quick set up and tear down time (Michigan winter nights are COLD)

After I came up with this list it took me a while to find the scope I wanted. Basically, I wanted a cheap, easy to use scope that I can carry around without killing my back, that I can set up quickly and that will let me see everything in the sky from planets to other galaxies. Regarding this last point I wasn't looking for perfection in viewing ability, merely competence. That is, I'd be happy with "good" rather than "perfect". I'm not willing to pay for "perfect" views of interstellar objects. Telescopes that offer "perfect" images are WAY too expensive for me.

Elements that did not make it to my list of criteria included imaging (astro-photography) and computerized mounts. Some day it might be nice to take pictures of objects in space, but that adds a HUGE amount to the cost of the scope and also requires a lot of experience. I originally toyed with getting a computerized scope for ease of use. These are scopes on a tripod with a motor and a hand held remote control. All you have to do is select name of the object from the computers list of objects and the telescope will automatically pivot and swing to point exactly at it.

I decided against computerized scopes for two reasons. First, it seemed like it would take all the fun out of research and exploration and second, it would add considerably to the price. I don't mind spending a bit of money on a scope, but I want that money to be spent on maximizing opitical quality and not on computerized bells and whistles.

Next time I'll describe what scope I chose and how it fits into my criteria. I ordered it a few days ago and am still waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully by next weekend!

Night Vision - Part 1

I was bitten by the astronomy bug early last September. My son, Simon, who is almost 7, has been more or less obsessed with the planets and stars for several years now and I've always loved the topic as well, but it wasn't until last September that I really began wanting to get us a family telescope. Because of Simon's interest we attended a "Family Astronomy Night" at a Metro Park about an hour away (and somewhat farther from the glaring Detroit area light pollution.) It was a beautiful night that night, but there was a huge crowd (which I found out later numbered between 4,000 and 5,000 people). This meant that we didn't get a chance to look through many telescopes because the lines were so long.

However, we did get to look through some large, good quality telescopes at the moon and Jupiter and I have to say that seeing Jupiter is what really hooked me. It's hard to describe. For years I've known enough about the general layout of the planets and constellations to differentiate between Jupiter & Venus and the stars, although I didn't quite know enough to tell the difference between Jupiter & Venus with the naked eye (which I've since figured out, more or less).

However, I've never looked through a good telescope before and I never knew how much you could see about Jupiter if you just stood on the ground and looked at it through a good scope. So, I wasn't expecting much that night when I leaned over and peered through the eyepiece of a big Dobsonian scope. What I did see, however, well... it stunned me. I could see the bands of horizontal color. I could see the great red spot. And, most of all, I could see the 4 Galilean moons Io, Europe, Ganymede and Callisto. I mean, I knew that Galileo saw the 4 main moons hundreds of years ago with his little telescope, but seeing it yourself is different. It sounds silly, but seeing that was a bit of a transformative experience. It was hauntingly beautiful.

Here's what it looked like (but seeing a picture of it is not quite the same as seeing it with your own eyes).

Nothing in space looks as good through a telescope as it does in one of those Hubble Space Telescope pictures you see, but for me seeing this blurry little image with no more technology between me and it than a mirror and the lens of an eyepiece brought the universe closer than it was before.

The very next day I began researching telescopes. I've been reading about them online every day for the past 5 months. I've learned the difference between Galilean refractors, Newtonian reflectors and Schmidt-Cassegrain models. I've learned what focal length and focal ratios are and the difference between an f/5 and an f/15 scope and how that will affect the image you see. I've learned the difference between various sized eyepieces and how to calculate the magnification power of a scope by dividing its focal length by the focal length of the eyepiece.

Most importantly, I learned that no one scope excels at allowing you to see the moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae and other galaxies. Over time I discovered what I wanted out of a telescope and a couple of days ago I finally bought one. It should arrive in a week or so

Later I'll describe what my criteria were for our new family scope and which one I chose. Still later I hope to describe our attempts to find hidden treasures in the night sky. That's enough for now, though.

Hawksbill's List of Books: 2008

Here's a list of all the books I read in 2008.

• Gone for Good
• A Cold Dark Place
• Turn Left at Orion
• The Last Battle
• The Silver Chair
• Foundation
• The Long Emergency
• How Children Fail
• The Ruins
• Mere Christianity
• Contact
• The Varieties of Scientific Experience
• Nightwatch: A Practical Guide for Viewing the Universe
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• A Horse and his Boy
• Prince Caspian
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Magician's Nephew
• I, Claudius
• The History of the Ancient World
• Smarting Us Up
• Teach Your Own
• The Woods
• Pain Killer
• The Broken Cord
• The Forever War
• Starship Troopers
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Job: A Comedy of Justice
• The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
• The Return of Tarzan
• Tarzan of the Apes

Monique and the Dragon - Step 2

This afternoon I primed Monique and the Dragon. Here are the latest pictures:



I've never primed in black before. It is supposed to make the colors a bit duller with built in shadows. White primer tends to make colors brighter, or so they say. I thought I'd experiment with the black on the dragon. Besides, my can of white primer was almost empty and I didn't have enough for the both of them. I'm curious to see if it really does make a difference.

I've already had my first mishap, though. I've learned that I can't go tipping the dragon willy nilly around on its base. It fell off a few minutes ago and clanged down onto the table. It does weigh over a pound, after all. I'm just glad nothing broke. Those wings are solid metal, but they just seem fragile.

Monique and the Dragon - Step 1

I got my new minis in the mail yesterday and spend some time assembling them for painting. Here's some pix of pre and post assembly.



I'm going to hold off on gluing Monique's left arm and shield and also the scabbard until after painting. If I put them on now they would prevent me from getting at some hard to reach places.

The base that the dragon is sitting on will be the final base that I mount both of the figures on.

The next step is to prime them and then mount them temporarily on a wooden block using putty so that I can pick them up easily and pivot them around in a dozen different directions without having to touch the figures themselves.

I also have to decide on a color scheme. At the moment I'm thinking of painting the dragon red with a cream colored underbelly. The wings might also be red, but I'm considering painting them and the top row of spines on his back black with gray highlighting. I'm imagining Monique with blue and black armor and blond hair.

Jungle Queen - The Final Finale

Well, after many months of working on it just a little bit at a time... here it is.


The figures are held to the base with a combination of putty and super glue. Then I painted the white putty brown, getting it as close as I could to the color of the base. So far it seems to be held there very firmly.

And, just to make it easy to compare the finished product with the original... here's what they looked like after I primed them:



All in all I'm very pleased with it. I had originally planned to decorate the base with shrubbery and whatnot, but I kind of like the minimalist feel of it. Now I can put it on the mantle with the others and feel good about finishing it.

Next up is a more ambitious project. It will be another two figure diorama, but this time it will be two separate figures that weren't packaged together.

Yesterday I put an order for a dragon called Deathsleet and a vampire knight from their 54mm master series named Monique DeNoir. Here are their pictures from the online catalog:


Well, she's supposed to be a vampire, that is. I haven't decided if I'll paint her that way. I've already picked up and stained a large wooden base to mount them on. I plan to mount them together in one diorama that I guess I'll call "Monique and the Dragon".

My lovely bride going away all next weekend with the kids and I'll have the house to myself. So, I ordered these minis and a new video game and I plan to rent a bunch of movies and pretend that, at least from Friday afternoon until Sunday, I have no responsibilities in the world except to enjoy my hobbies. I just hope the minis and the new game come in the mail in time!

The Queen's Lion

I had a burst of energy yesterday and finished the cat that accompanies the Jungle Queen. I had originally planned it to be a leopard but without intending to I ended up creating a mountain lion. Or maybe a lioness. I was a bit intimidated by all those spots anyway.

Here it is:


Now I have to coat them with a matte finish and then design the little base they'll be standing on together. I may actually be finished with it by later this evening.

I'm kind of proud of it, but I do have to honest. When I see a completed work like this one, I have to admit that I don't really know what the heck I'm doing. I'm stunned by the level of detail and the ability to shade and highlight that some painters have.

But still, I may not have enough skill to really feel like an artist, but it is very pleasant to spend so much time working on a mini and then have that sense of accomplishment when I'm done.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 5 - Pretty much finished

I think I'm more or less done with the Jungle Queen figure. I've lightened her skin up a bit and highlighted her hair and done my best on her lips.



Now I just have to work on the cat.

Foot Foot '08: 9 Geeks, 9 Days, 68 Games!

Where we live in Michigan real men (non gaming geeks) are awarded a certain birthright: hunting. That is to say, real men are not only allowed to spend a week in the woods away from their spouses and children where they drink beer and shoot guns with their friends, but they are expected to do so. It's what they do and God help you if you stand between them and their hunting trips.

As you may have guessed, I am not a real man. I'm a gaming geek. So are my friends. We may drink beer, but we don't hunt. Instead, we play games. Lots and lots of games. The sad part of this is that we were somehow left out of the part where we get to leave home with our friends for days at a time to pursue our hobby without distraction from spouses, children or jobs.

A few years ago our group got together and decided that the madness must end! So, we designed the Foot Foot Gamers Annual Retreat (named, of course, after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). The first year we had the retreat was 2006. That year we rented a cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and gamed from early one Friday morning until about 2pm the next Sunday. Last year we took things a bit further. We arrived at the same cottage on a Wednesday night after work and played through Sunday. (You can read about those retreats here and here.)

For our retreats we designed a scoring system, logged all of our games and awarded a grand prize to the "Best Overall Gamer". The prize is a plaque with 12 blank name plates on it. If you win the plaque you get to have your name engraved on it and you get to keep it for a year. Jake won our inaugural event in '06 and Paul won it last year in '07. There are enough name plates on the plaque to keep us doing this until 2017! After that, we buy a new plaque.

My lovely bride with the coveted prize.

Anyway, this year we decided to take things a bit further. This year we rented a different cottage for 9 days from 4pm on Saturday, August 2nd until noon on Sunday, August 10th. Not everyone could show up at the same time, though, so we broke the week up into segments. From Saturday to Wednesday morning would be a free for all in which any of us could use the cottage and invite our spouses and children. Sunday, specifically, would be "family fun day". Then, from 12pm on Wednesday until 12pm on Sunday would be gamers only time. The entire week would feature a lot of gaming, but the official scoring wouldn't begin until Thursday morning at 6am and would last until we left on Sunday.

The following is a narrative of how the week went, what games we played and the other fun things that happened.

Saturday, August 2nd
Barb and I, along with Simon and Gwen (who are 6 and 3 years old), arrived at the cottage at about 4:30pm on Saturday. We were the first ones there and Paul was the only other Foot Foot member we expected on that day. While we waited for him we took some pictures of the cottage, which was much nicer than the place we rented the previous two years. Here are some of our pictures:

Here is the front/side of the cottage we rented.

Here is the back yard as seen from the patio door. Because there would be so many guys in the house for the week I opted to bring our tent along. That's chateau Hawksbill there on the left. This picture must have been taken later because Lake Huron isn't visible in the background. Must have been a bit foggy at the time.

This is the view from the edge of the bluff overlooking the lake. We spent a lot of time between games standing out there looking at the water and telling gaming war stories.

At 5pm, before Paul arrived we decided to take the kids down to the water to check out our beach access. I don't have pictures of it, but our path down to the water was by way of a very long staircase. About half way down we reached the first landing and I noticed a few bees flying nearby. I foolishly said "stand still kids... don't scare the bees." That's when the 2 or 3 bees disappeared under the stairway and came back moments later with 15-20 bees. Then they attacked! Seriously! The swarmed all over us and we all ran back up the stairs yelling. Simon and I both got stung three times. Gwen got stung twice. Barb escaped being stung at all. Nature sucks!

A little while later, at 6pm, Paul showed up and we helped him unpack. Then he and I went out and bought 2 big cans of some bee-killing chemical that sprayed 2o feet away. We went back down the stairs to investigate. We found that we could get fairly close to the bees without causing them to swarm and that we could figure out where the hive was based on their activity. It turns out it was right under the staircase. So, we planned to crawl under the staircase with the cans of Raid and hose them down from about 8 feet way. That's when we noticed something else. The entire hillside was covered (completely!) with poison ivy. Ugh!

So, our plan was this: To return to the cottage and cover ourselves completely in clothing from head to toe and then to return to the staircase where one or both of us would crawl through the poison ivy, under the staircase and kill the bees, all the while hoping that the bees didn't launch a full on counter attack.

At 9pm this is what we did. I put on long pants, tucked my pant legs into my socks, put on a hooded sweatshirt which I pulled over my face trekked back to the staircase, ready for battle. Then we decided who would crawl through the poison ivy to kill the bees. For some reason I volunteered. I don't know why I did this. I knew I was very allergic to poison ivy (A few years ago I got a horrible rash after chasing a black bear into the woods, but that's another story). Anyway, I hopped over the railing, crawled through the poison ivy on my knees and elbows and finally located the hive. Then I emptied two large cans of Raid on it. The bees didn't know what hit them. They not only didn't counter attack, they merely fell and died instantly. It turns out that, although bees may have a huge dodge bonus to melee weapons, they have a profound weakness to chemical attacks. Score one for the good guys.

After this Paul and I want back inside where I stripped off my presumably diseased clothing and took a very hot shower. Then we all took a walk down to water with the kids. I was very interested in seeing the beach because our gaming retreats are often filled with drunken midnight swimming. Here are some pictures.

Gwen and Simon on the beach.

Gwen, me and Simon admiring the big rocks.

After this it was time to prepare for the arrival of more gamers the next day. We went back up to the cottage and organized our games.

My stack of games. (Note the kids games up front... ready for family game day!)

Paul's stack of games. Lots of good stuff!

In addition to games, Paul took steps to make sure that nobody would be thirsty this week.

At 10pm Paul and I sat down to our first game of the week: Saint Petersburg. He and I had been playing this one fairly often on Yucata.

It was nice to play it again in person. It was my turn to win this time. After this we all turned in for the night.

Sunday, August 3rd:
For most of this day Paul and I were the only gamers on site. After a nice breakfast of egg sandwiches and bacon we settled down for a 2 player game of Aton before heading out to explore the beach some more. After that Simon, Paul and I chilled out to a game of Blokus, which is one of Simon's favorites. Then Paul and I played some Babel and 3 games of Blue Moon. I won Aton, Blokus and Babel, Paul won 2 out of the 3 games of Blue Moon.

Around 3pm that afternoon our pal Mark and his family arrived and after getting them all settled we all went back down to the beach for some swimming. At about 6pm Mark made us all some burgers. Then around 6:30pm Mark, Paul and I settled down for a game of Nefertiti, which I totally didn't grok. Mark took 1st, Paul 2nd and I came in last. Then, to wrap up this first day, Paul, Mark, Angela (Mark's wife) and I played a game of Settlers at around 9pm which Paul won.

Monday, August 4th:
This was a very rainy day and we were stuck inside most of the time. This morning Larry arrived and we opened up the gaming day with round of Gulo Gulo. Playing were me, Paul, Larry, Mark, my son Simon and Mark's kids Kip and Athea. Simon beat us all. He's pretty good at the Gulo Gulo! Then me, Simon, Athea and Mark&Kip (teaming up) played some Blokus and the Mark&Kip team cleaned all our clocks. Around 11am Paul and Larry played We the People (Paul won) while Mark and I played some Babel (I won). At 2pm Larry, Mark, Paul and I played some Saga, which Larry won.

At 3pm I showed Angela how to play Castle Keep in case she and Mark wanted to pick up a copy for their kids and at 3:30 me and Mark conducted a teaching session of Chateau Roquefort with Athea, Kip, Simon and Gwen.

At about 4:30 that afternoon Mark's family left and me, Mark, Paul and Larry played a game of California. I came in 1st. I'm glad to get some milage out of some of those Tanga deals!

At 6:30 Paul made us a great dinner of short ribs. Here's a shot of Paul, Larry and Mark around the grill.

At about 8:30 Paul, Mark, Larry and I sat down for our first heavy game of the week: Wealth of Nations. This is probably one of my favorite new games of the year. It is still on my wishlist. I really do need to get myself a copy.

Wealth of Nations (that's me in the middle, flanked by my minions Gwen and Simon)

About midway through the game, around midnight sometime, Paul and I did some late night swimming in Lake Huron. Midnight swimming is one of my favorite parts of the retreat. We halted the game for the night, to be complted the next day.

Tuesday, August 5th:
This morning Barb, Simon, Gwen and I went out for breakfast while Paul, Larry and Mark played some St. Petersburg. (Paul one).

After that we finished up Wealth of Nations. Mark kicked arse with a total of 103 points. I was close behind at 102. Around 1:30 that afternoon we played some Tichu, which is one of my all time favorite games. Mark and Paul beat Larry and I handily. Later we played some Magic: The Gathering (sealed deck). My notes don't say who won, but I know I choked badly. I think Paul won, if memory serves, but I could be wrong.

Later that evening, around 8:30 I played some O Zoo Le Mio with Barb, Larry and Simon. As usual, Simon won. As with Gulo Gulo, he's pretty good at this one. After that Paul, Larry, Simon and I played a round of Hare and Tortoise, which Paul won. (Hm... this is not the best picture of Gwen, I think. :)


Late this night, around 11:30 we played another of my favorite new games of the year: Primordial Soup. Larry, Mark and I played with Larry coming in 1st. Good stuff. Who doesn't love a game about poop?

Wednesday, August 6th:
The next morning Paul introduced me to the game Tamsk, which I'd never heard of before. I managed to win dispite that, though. Then I went off to breakfast with my family again while Larry, Paul and Mark played some Aquaretto with Larry taking first place. I like Zooloretto, but I still haven't played this spin off.

Then from 1pm to 5pm we played another heavy. Paul brought out Perikles which he and I and Mark and Larry played. I don't think any of us had played Perikles before and I don't think any of us liked it very much. Someone quite accurately described the game as being very much like spending several hours doing someone's taxes. Not very interesting. I won anyway, but it would have been a more satisfying win if I'd actually enjoyed the game more.

A little before 7pm that evening our buddy Steve arrived and we all sat down to a game of Glory to Rome. Mark took 1st with me coming in a fairly distand 2nd.

Then, around 9pm Eric showed up and we jumped into a 5 player game of Relationship Tightrope (with me, Steve, Eric, Paul and Larry... Mark didn't join us for some reason.) I really like this game. It has quite a silly theme, but it is fast, entertaining and pretty challenging. Larry took 1st place with only 10 points! Go Larry!

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a 6 player game of Hoity Toity, another one of my favoirites. I really like the simultaneous reveal mechanic. Somewhere in the middle of the game Eric spilled his glass of Red Bull and coconut rum all over the table, which made quite a mess, but the rest of the game smelled quite nice. In the end Mark won and Steve came in 2nd.

Thursday, August 7th:
This morning marks the beginning of our official scoring to win the fancy plaque! From here until noon on Sunday all the games count for the big prize!

We started off splitting into two groups. Paul and Steve played some We the People (Paul won by killing Washington). Me, Mark and Larry got started with a game of Amazonas. Mark won this one. Amazonas is a fairly nice little game, but the tie breaking mechanism is terribly flawed. If I ever play again I'll push for a tie breaking system similary to O Zoo Le Mio.

Eric spent the morning sleeping it off.

Since Paul and Steve were still paying We the People, Larry, Mark and I played a game of Stone Age, which I won.

Steve and Paul playing We the People.

Mark and Larry prepping our game of Stone Age.

At 11:30am we all gathered together again for a game of Tribune. Well, all of us except Eric who was still asleep. Larry won very handily with a strategy of acquiring laurels, favors of the gods and cold hard cash. At 2:30 we split into two groups again. Steve, Larry and Mark played Antike (Mark won) while Paul, Eric and I played some Caylus (I won). After that, around 5:30pm or so Steve made us all dinner by serving up his amazing pulled pork sandwiches. Good stuff!

Then, at 6:30 Paul, Larry and I played Hollywood Blockbuster (Larry won) and Erik, Mark and Steve played Metropolis (Mark won).At 8pm Jake and Ben arrived, bringing our total now up to 8 players. We split into two 4's with Ben, Eric, Paul and Mark playing Notre Dame (Paul won) while Steve, Jake, Larry and I played some more Primordial Soup (I won). What can I say? I just can't get enough poop related gaming!


At 11pm everyone but George jumped into a game of Pow Wow, which was madcap and crazy. I took 1st while Paul came in 2nd. Then we split into 2 groups again and Larry, Eric, Steve and Jake played Situation 4 (Eric and Jake won) while Paul and I teamed up against Mark and Ben in another game of Tichu (Paul and I won). After Situation 4, Eric, Jake, Larry and Steve played their own game of Tichu with Larry and Jake winning.

That brought us all to about 3:00am in the morning and we all passed out exhausted from a fantastic day of gaming.

Friday, August 8th:
Early this morning at around 3:30am our friend George finally arrived from New York and our group hit its peak of 9 gamers. When we woke up Mark made us a fine breakfast and Paul served us up some delicious mimosa.

At around 7:30am Jake, Paul, Steve and Ben played a game of Nefertiti. Later, at 9:30am Larry, Paul, Ben and Steve played a game of Friedrich which Ben took 1st in as France. At the same time I sat down to another game of Wealth of Nations with George, mark and Jake. Mark cleaned up with 80 points and I took 2nd with 71. Mark played brilliantly. He managed to get an operational bank on turn 3 and spent the game totally focusing on money. Good stuff!

Mark and Jake planning their Wealth of Nations conquests.

At around 1:30 on Friday Larry, Eric, Steve, Ben and Paul sat down to some Puerto Rico, which Steve won and Paul came in 2nd. At 3pm, Me, George, Mark and Jake finished Wealth of Nations and tried out Caribbean, which I totally sucked at and George dominated.

Later at a bit after 4pm two new games started. Paul, Steve, George, Jake and Larry played El Grande which Paul won and Jake came in 2nd. Also, Mark, Ben, Eric and I started up a game of Stone Age. Mark took 1st while I came in 2nd.

A beautiful sunset overlooking Lake Huron on Friday night with my own personal barracks in the foreground.

At 8pm Steve, Paul, Jake, George and Eric played a game of Quo Vadis?. Steve won this one and George took 2nd place. At the same time, Ben, Mark and I played Midgard. Once again Mark took 1st place and I came in 2nd. By this time I was getting crazy tired after being up so late the night before. My ability to think coherently was seriously diminished and I went off to bed at 11:30.

After I went to bed Larry, Jake, Paul and Steve played some more Relationships Tightrope. Larry and Jake took 1st and 2nd respectively.

Then around 10:30pm a big game of Antike formed with Eric, Steve, George, Jake, Ben and Paul. Sometime around 12:30 I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I came back inside to watch the action unfold. Finally, around 1am Steve completed his Antike domination and Paul followed him with 2nd place.

Around 2am we all packed it in and went to bed.

Saturday, August 9th:
Wow, our last full day of gaming before returning to the real world.

This got off to a bit of a slow start this morning. The gaming didn't really begin until 10:30. George, Paul, Larry, Steve and Eric played a game of In the Year of the Dragon, which Paul and George took 1st and 2nd in. At that point I hadn't played this game yet, but in the last year I've had the chance to play it many times and have even picked up my own copy. I like it quite a bit.

At the same time Jake, Ben, Mark and I played a game of Vikings. Once again Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd. Vikings isn't the best game in the world, but I find it very pleasant. I like the way it mixes a number of familiar game mechanics in a pretty interesting way.

Later on, George and Paul took 1st and 2nd in a game of Modern Art. Good auction fun.

At 1:30 on Saturday another game of Settlers broke out between Jake, Ben Mark and myself. I took 1st and Jake came in 2nd.

Then, at 3:30pm we played yet another game of Primordial Soup. I just couldn't get enough of that poop eatin' fun! Since the retreat I've purchased my own copy of this game along with the 5-6 player expansion set. I really like it quite a bit. I took 1st place while Ben came in 2nd.

While we were playing Primordial Soup, George, Paul, Steve, Jake and Larry played a game of Wallenstein. I was glad to miss this one. I never really liked Wallenstein. There are some heavy games my head flows naturally into. Wallenstein isn't one of them. It just makes my skull hurt. Ugh!

Primordial Soup and Wallenstein both took quite a long time to play. The next set of games didn't start until 8:30 Saturday evening. Eric, mark, Jake and Paul sat down for a match of Age of Steam while George, Ben, Larry and I played a nice game of Ra. Paul and Mark took 1st and 2nd in Age of Steam while George and Larry tied for 1st place in Ra.

Age of Steam took a lot longer to play than Ra, so while those guys were still playing that one George, ben, Larry and I played a quick round of For Sale (I won) and then another game of Pizarro & Co. (George and Ben came in 1st and 2nd). I have to say, Pizarro & Co. is one of my favorite auction games. I'm always happy when this one hits the table.

Then, around 1:30 in the morning Mark and I teamed up against Jake and Ben in a game of Tichu. Mark and I got our hats handed to us. It's tough sitting down against Jake in a game of Tichu. He's just plain good at it.

After that, it was once again time for bed.

Sunday, August 10th:
Ah... our last day. We all got up around 7:30am and started cleaning up. For some reason I stopped taking notes at this point so I'm not exactly sure what happened this day. I was getting a ride home from Jake and he had to leave a bit early, so I don't think I got in any gaming on this day.

I'm pretty sure that several of the guys stayed until noon and played the customary final game of Ticket to Ride, but I don't know who won or anything.

What I do remember is that on the ride home my neck started itching like crazy. By the time I got home I had a crazy, itchy, scratcy rash on my hands, neck and cheeks. It turns out that I had contracted poison ivy the Sunday before when I'd crawled around in the underbrush to kill the bee hive. I didn't know it had such a long incubation period, but it waited to hit me until the ride home a full week later. I spent the next 3 days trying not to scratch my skin off and taking lots of Benadryl. Ugh!

The next day Paul tallied the final game results and it turns out that he took the overall grand prize for the 2nd year in a row. I came in 2nd place while Mark took 3rd.

Well done Paul! Next time we will crush you!!! :)

Here's a couple of pictures of the last game of the week, with several of us in our official Foot Foot T-shirts, designed by Larry.

From left to right: Paul, Eric, George, Mark, Ben and Jake.

Me, Mark and Paul.

My thanks to the whole group for all the fun and good times. I hope we can keep this up for many years to come!