On Thursday night Kathy and I spent some time stargazing at Crane Point here in Marathon.

For a fair fee of six bucks, we got to walk a half mile mile or so out to the end of Crane point through some very natural Key's habitat. Elizabeth our guide provided a wonderful running commentary on Key's habitat, plant names and history.

Once at the point, we found an acquaintance or ours, Jay (affectionately known as the "Stargeezer") with a couple of telescopes already set up in preparation for the impending darkness.

While waiting for sunset (a rather short event, this far south) we snapped the picture above. I have heard a comment that you can only look at so many sunsets but I disagree. On more for the picture file.

Back at the telescope site there were two telescopes, demonstrating a nice juxtaposition.... a lovely modern computer controlled self tracking telescope and another contraption the looked more like a Circus prop than a telescope.
The exciting part was , the old circus prop version had such clarity of the moon you might have thought you could see Neil Armstrong's flag motionless in the vacuum. Imagination is a great thing.

We got excellent looks at a full Venus, Saturn and a crescent Mercury along with various other stars.

Excellent evening... highly recommended to anyone passing through Marathon. Check with the Tourist Bureau for dates.