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Toledo Astronomical Association and Erie Shores Council BSA sponsored a star party at the Pioneer Scout Reservation. The party started on Saturday September 8th, 2001. The weather was not looking good. Rain was forecast for the day and we could easily believe it since clouds were blowing in all morning. Around 2 PM we loaded the 12.5" and 8" telescopes into the van, hoped for the best, and headed for Pioneer. Approximately 70 Scouts, Scouters ( adult leaders ) and members of the TAA gathered at Pioneer Scout Reservation for the first of what we hope are many joint star parties. When we arrived, the sky was looking really bad. It was soon raining heavily and we figured the evening would be spent viewing stars in the videos instead of the sky. Within an hour, the rain stopped and the sky was partly clear. We brought out the 8" scopes with solar filters and viewed sunspots until dinner. During dinner the clouds rolled in and it looked as if we were going to have an evening of videos and talk. After dinner we headed back to Loftus for a meeting and the presentations. The programs were started at 7:30 with Don Murad describing his eclipse tour of Africa. His slides were beautiful and very informative. The next presentation was about comets by John Wisniewski. He constructed a comet for us that evaporated like the real ones. Miraculously as John Wisniewski finished his presentation of how to make a comet, the skies above the camp cleared and remained that way until about 2:30 in the morning, permitting extended viewing. Scouts and Scouters wandered back and forth from the telescopes to the showings of Buck Rogers Conquers the Universe, Flash Gordon and Space Cowboys in the dinning hall. While the presentations were taking place the sky was getting darker. Mars was soon spotted and some of the brighter stars were visible. The scopes were used to view Mars initially since it was the first thing we could see. The sky was clear, very clear. Once it was fully dark, the Milky Way was shining like a bright ribbon above us. The stars were getting brighter and the large 25" telescope was being used to view various objects in Sagittarius. The 8" scopes were trained on deep sky objects like the Ring Nebula in Lyra and the star cluster, M13 in Hercules. Viewing was made more interesting by the rather spectacular electrical storms to the west and north. Throughout the evening, small knots of individuals were to be observed around the various telescopes. I spent a good part of the evening orienting individuals to the constellations. I personally enjoyed seeing the Lagoon Nebula and the Wild Duck Nebula through the 25". Soon, the moon came up over the horizon and deep sky objects became much more difficult to find. The moon was a good target, however. Its craters and mountains showing up at the terminator like a 3D movie. Around 1:00 AM Saturn made an appearance. Its rings were beautiful and a moon was clearly visible. A band could even be made out. Some were able to see a second moon. About 2:30 AM some fast moving clouds appeared from the southwest and destroyed viewing for a while, I had just put the 25" scope away when a quick shower occurred. Ed Lewinski, Doug Mansor and a few other diehards stayed up hoping for a break in the clouds. They were rewarded with some excellent viewing of Jupiter. When it became visible, the scopes were able to show us its bands and moons. Later that morning Orion became visible as clouds on the eastern horizon moved north. The Orion nebula was difficult to see since