by James Turley
I knew something was wrong when I wheeled into the MB parking lot around 630pm and was greeted by the usual cast of MB (ir)regulars decked in full artic regalia. I then noticed the monumental thick black wall of clouds hovering over the Western horizon. All night they circled us like some hungry pack.
Then I noticed the cause of it all. Mr. Crisp's towering AP 180mm (that's 7.1 inches of pure triple decker fluorite plus a bit oil folks) f/9 Starfire EDT Refractor. Wow oh wow. Marek, Phil C were doing a photo shoot of it, like some fashion model. Peter McK and chairs were circled around this beast like some God waiting for a juicy sacrifice. Later Anders joined us and actually set up his sweet new XT10". Soon to become an MB regular. Welcome!
See http://www.SurfImageLab.com/astro/ for shots.
Did I say cold? Frigid is a better word. 40F I think was the lowest May recorded temp at MB, ever. With the help of a little Jack Daniels, we sat around a circle ice fishing, and telling tall stories and big lies like good ol' boys.
Rich actually put an ocular on his scope, after tearing off the nest of wires to gain access to the business end of the scope. It wasn't fair, because the Moon was doing a backstroke, and Jupiter was pulsating. I noted a purple and yellow fringe around the bright limb of the moon, but kept that to myself (not! :-)
Packing up and leaving by 930pm.
Just one of those nights at MB. Great company, great scopes...just not great skies.
Posted on sf-bay-tac May 23, 2004 23:43:34 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 12, 2004 20:16:16 PT