In fact, so much drought-breaking rain fell in the course of the week that El Paso farmers are reported to be bidding for the right to host the 2008 Texas Star Party in their fair city and are offering to donate half a dozen new telescopes as door prizes in an effort to invoke the notorious New Telescope Syndrome.
Still, the TSP was a social success, the highlight of which was the social event of the year - the Starsend Observatory Barbecue, where certain latent alcoholics were able to indulge a little before signing the pledge and handing over their booze to Sheriff Jim at Checkpoint Charlie before entering onto the Prude Ranch (I always used to wonder how it got that name).
In the absence of much in the way of observing, the addresses were well attended with Andrew Moral wowing the crowd with tall tales and true about the gems of the Southern Sky, so much so that he managed to persuade a former Mississippi amateur to return to Australia in 2008.
Another of the Australian contingent, John Blueberry got lucky with the door prizes, and did not really mind missing out on the Argo Navis as he already had two but was very pleased to win the free entry to the Po Biddle County Rattlesnake Sexing Competition, coming as it did with a week's free training at the Apache Wells Rattlesnake Ranch immediately following on the end of the Star Party.
John reports that chief snake wrangler Larry Schmidt really knows his stuff - and that's no bull! He instructed John in all the important and prize winning stuff: how to take charming photos; snake charming; and human/reptile bonding.
However, John did not do well in attempting the feat of kissing a snake on the head without getting bitten.
He had started off well by presenting his camera at a particularly photogenic and rather vain snake to encourage it to pose for him, but just as he moved in for the affectionate part, the flash on the camera went off, startled the brute and spoiled the moment, so although John did not actually get bitten, he missed out on the kiss, which greatly disappointed him, though all is not lost.
Now that he has learned the technique, he plans to get in some practice for the 2008 Po Biddle County Snake Sexing Competition by practising back at home with a few Eastern Brown Snakes and Desert Death Adders.