by Alexander Avtanski
The first thing I did after locating the reserved camping space and setting up the tent was to drive back to the ranger booth at the park entrance and ask if I can set-up the scope at a boat launch parking lot for the night. I couldn't believe my luck when the ranger turned out to be a fellow amateur astronomer, teaching at the Taylor Planetarium & Observatory in Kelseyville [ http://www.lakecounty.com/things/planet.html ]! I was told that the parking lots are not good for setting up a scope, because of a number of floodlights (that I didn't notice during the day), but the swimming area beach is dark and relatively quiet spot. The surface is mostly gravel, but there is a concrete sidewalk too [here is a picture: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p5875849.html ].
That evening I arrived at the swimming area well after dark. Good thing I was the only one around - I was able to setup my scope using the van headlights to illuminate the place. After fixing a minor mechanical problem with the RA drive I was ready.
The swimming area, quite naturally, faces the lake. The road next to the parking lot (internal road for the camping) was used quite frequently during the night (once every 10-15 min.), but strategically parking the van to block the light proved an easy solution. There are some city lights visible over the lake, but those are quite far and do not cause any problems.
I did not have prepared plan, and since Cygnus was conveniently located at the time, I chose to explore the area methodically and to take my time sketching and making notes.
In the same field of view at 40x, there is a stunningly beautiful asterism of four stars that to me looked amazingly like the silhouette of the Space Shuttle. If you happen to be in the area, take a look at this arrow shape - the shuttle's tail is a relatively bright yellow star, the wings are a white (left) and blue (right) stars, and the nose is a clear blue star. The beautiful shape is so symmetrical that it looks artificial.
At this point the glow from the Moon that was probably rising behind the hills was beginning to show. As I was thinking how much dark time I would have, a group of campers with flashlights came by. The usual questions: "What are you looking at? Can I take a look?". Usually I show some of the brighter objects with pleasure, but this time after several of my polite requests to turn off the flashlights, or at least not to point them directly in my face, it became clear that no more viewing would be possible and I packed away.
The next evening, Jul 10, I was tired and did not setup the scope. From my campsite with the 8x35 and 12x50 binoculars I saw the comets 2003 K4 (LINEAR) and 2001 Q4 (NEAT). Both were conveniently located and I think I improved my speed record for locating a comet - got both in about 15 sec. None had any evident tail. 2003 K4 looks brighter than 2001 Q4, despite that my chart said the opposite. For K4 there was not sharp brightening toward the center, while Q4's center looked pretty concentrated with a star-like [pseudo-]nucleus.
Generally I'm happy both with the observing, and the weekend in general. Clear Lake SP campground appears to have pretty decent skies. If you set-up on the swimming area, beware the large boulders that separate the beach area from the parking lot - those are very easy to forget in the dark and to trip over (as I did while packing the scope at the end of the night).
During the day the main activity can be fishing, and some swimming. I personally would skip the swimming, because Clear Lake seems to be everything but "Clear". The water at the swimming area was solid impenetrable green with algae [take a look at the picture I took there: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p5875845.html ], and the only good thing for me was that it didn't smell bad, as one would expect. There are also some hiking trails, but this time I didn't get a chance to try them.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Jul 12, 2004 18:14:34 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 03, 2005 19:20:12 PT