On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 18:02:32 -0800, Mean Mr Mustard wrote:

Star parties have become yet another place for the wealthy to show off
their toys. I'm done with star parties.
Hmmmm. I suppose that could be the case, but it certainly isn't a given.
I went to a High school astro club meeting and while I didn't have the
best scope there, the fact that I knew where things where made my
telescope very popular. There were about 30 kids and about 5 scopes.

Perhaps what you are experianceing is not bad *star* parties, but just bad
parties. I've been to plenty of those. Xmas seems to generate a lot of
them.

If I had a severely expensive scope, I certainly would not take it to a
start party. I wouldn't do that to a nice eyepiece.

Tom R