First to arrive was Rabbi Essene of Missouri City, Kansas, quickly followed by Ada Akin, Lyn and Fran Kirby, Mark Cougar, Rob Vanderson and Don Charles, to join local observers Andrew "Hawkeye" Moral, Donald MacLachlan and Tony Starbuck.
All immediately commenced a well planned observing session and after initial survey with binoculars extensively examined the southern sky with two twenty inch scopes one 14.5 inch and one 12.5 inch.
The debate on exactly what colour the stars making the core of 47 Tucanae were, was sidetracked by the alarming discovery that M13 was actually an open cluster and Omega Centauri in reality a dwarf galaxy captured by our own.
Emus were observed, most on the ground but also a large one extending between Crux and Scorpio, while the list of Caldwell objects recorded, together with those Messier would have included in his catalogue had he been able to observe them from his Paris pub, grew rapidly.
After several nights of non-stop observing two members of the group were seen praying for rain, less because of photon fatigue than from the attractions and delights of dining next to the well-stocked bar of the neighbourhood Imperial Hotel.
Nearby sites were examined in daylight including Siding Spring Observatory, the Australia Telescope Radio Array and a shameless and photogenic Koala posing full frontal in a gum tree.
By the end of the week the 2005 Deep-South Texas Star Safari was planned in detail and will include observers from those parts of the US nearest the Arctic Circle, attracted by the dual joys of observing new stuff and successfully dodging both frostbite and polar bears.
Massive and comprehensive observing lists have been in preparation for fully six months while the number of observers and telescopes attending will more than double, including a rumoured 25 inch Obsession.
Political asylum will be sought for those US observers who cannot face the thought of returning to the black pit of circumpolar North, inspired by local sightings of that other successful political refugee Elvis running, or rather hopping, with the kangaroos in the adjacent Warrumbungles National Park.