by Rich Neuschaefer
Yet another fun night on the mountain. Lick had number four of their Summer Visitor Programs (8/17/02). There were half a dozen amateur scopes, some set up behind and some in front of the old observatory building. One of the amateurs with a Portaball (12.5" ?) was doing a great job of finding and tracking the "Death Star" asteroid. It was really moving. It was easy to see it moving in relation to the stars in the eyepiece. Its speed through the stars in the eyepiece was much like watching a satellite, naked eye, moving through the stars in the night sky.
The seeing was quite good. It was windy, as usual. I had my 6" AP refractor aimed at the Moon much of the time, until dome of the observatory moved in front of the Moon. After the moon I looked at, showed to the public, several of the show piece objects.
Near mid-night the fog came in. For a little while it was as high as the observatory but very thin. We never had a problem seeing the night sky. About an hour later the fog moved back down into the valley.
Both the 36" refractor and 40" reflector were used for public viewing. It looked as if the 36" pointed at three different objects during the public phase of the program. The last public object in the 36" was M92. It nearly filled the field. The core of M92 is quite dense. The giant refractor easily resolved many stars the core. It was the best view of M92 I ever had.
It was a fun night. The pros at Lick were outstanding, as usual. The visitors all seemed to have a good time.
I'm looking forward to doing it again next month.