Anyone not going to Mt. Lassen?
By John R Pierce

The Santa Cruz Astronomy Club is having a star party at the Bonny Doon airstrip on Saturday. Info on their website (http://www.got.net/~lionhert/scac.htm) Last week we only had about 5 scopes up there, and 2 left early (I think there was just my C8, and a meade 8" dob, a oddesey 10" dob, a celestron 4.5" eq newt and a old c90 on a camera tripod). The viewing was ok (low down) to very good (high up). Dark skies, the two of us who stayed late were blessed with our first sighting of Saturn, Jupiter was quite clear once it crawled out of the murk. The lower 1/3 of the sky was quite turbulent, but anything much above around 45 Altitude was great. I got probably my best view of M51 to date The site is at 2000' and offers clear horizons except some trees to the north and east, with minimal light pollution from san jose (mostly tree masked) and santa cruz to the south.