Greetings and Salutations, I was in the park for a few days (Friday to Monday) and saw a few interesting things.   First Lemon Spring  (or is it Blue Lemon Spring, could someone help me here)  the first spring on the firehole loop drive.  Lynn has been reporting it sometimes overflowing, sometimes down several inches to a foot.  I managed to see it twice (once this weekend, once in September) boiling steady with greater overflow.  I could not stay around either time to see if it developed into an actual eruption or if it just boils before the water level drops.  Of note also, when I looked in the past the overflow from a standing pool was to the left or west of the pool.  Now the overflow (when not boiling) is to the right or east.  I think this is a new run off channel as it has grass in it.  Maybe the ground around the pool settled or shifted recently and is a factor in the increased thermal activity.  There was a report of a possible eruption of Black Diamond based on washed algae mats.  The report was on 10-3-09 but it was just of a prior recent eruption.  (Sorry, I would give the name of the watcher who reported it,  but I can't remember his name just now).  Anyway,  I visited the area on 10-5-09 and saw the same evidence, the mats in the runoff channel below the pool are partly torn out, missing in places and bunched up in clumps in others.  Nice to know Black Diamond is still active. I also got to see a very interesting Penta eruption on 10-3-09.  I walked though the Sawmill group about 12 minutes before the eruption and only Spasmodic was erupting.  Sawmill was full of water but below overflow.  I did not check on Tardy.  Churn was several inches below overflow and Oval pool was only about 2/3 full.   Dog bone was not overflowing.  I did see some six inch to one foot boils over Penta's main vent but I thought it was way to early in the cycle for Penta to start so I did not watch it long.  Just about this time Grand erupted and distracted me.  Just at the end of Grand's eruption someone called on the radio and asked if the people at Grand could confirm Penta was ie, which I did at 1232ie.  Some things to note, Penta started without a Tardy cycle, I was checking back that way now and then and I do not  think Tardy had erupted.  It certainly did not erupt during the next hour that Penta erupted.  Churn never got higher than a couple of inches below overflow.  Oval pool was only about 2/3 full.  About ten minutes into Penta's eruption (I forgot  to write down the time) Oval pool rose quickly and the southern or far vent erupted to a foot or so for less than a minute, then the pool level dropped.  It did this again at 1316.  At 1315 the main vent of Penta went into a powerful steam phase, but the other vents continued in water phase.  Penta turned off at 1328, then restarted at 1329 with all vents in steam phase  and finally stopped again at 1336.   Dog bone never overflowed during the eruption.  Spasmodic went into a drain during the first ten minutes of the eruption.  This is the first time I have seen Penta without Churn and Dog bone overflowing or with Oval Pool this low.  It is also the first time I have seen Penta go into a steam phase from a water phase.  Ahh, the Sawmill group continues to show me new things.  Although it kinda looked like Beehive interval were  getting longer, that may be just  a temporary fluctuation.  Check these times, 10-3-09 0811 wc, 2009, 10-4-09 1010 and unreported, and 10-5-09 1058.  For the short time I was in the park Fountain's intervals were about 6.5 hrs.  I will be without e-mail for about a week, my computer will be out of town on  business.  Stephen Eide <hr>Msg sent via CableONE.net MyMail - http://www.cableone.net