Deep Impact from Whiskeytown

by Marek Cichanski

Well, I'm up here in the north valley, hanging out at my folks' place before SSP, and I just got back from an observing session at Whiskeytown Lake. I think of Whiskeytown Lake as the 'Montebello' of Redding. It's close, only 30 minutes away, and it has a nice dark west. Of course, even the 'light dome' in the eastern sky is pretty minor. The Milky Way is nicely visible even when it's only 30 degrees above the 'bright' eastern horizon. It's convenient like MB, but dark like Fremont Peak, or nearly so.

I used my 18" f/4.5 Obsession, and I thought I saw a bit of brightening. It was hard to tell if it was really brightening, or if it was just my increasing dark adaptation, but I think it got a bit brighter. It was like a galaxy that doesn't have much of a nucleus, and over about half an hour or so it acquired a nearly stellar nucleus.

Nice conditions tonight, fully clear, limiting magnitude about 6, mid-70s at WL. Seeing was soft, though, but the sky was nice and dark.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Jul 04, 2005 01:15:52 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 26, 2005 20:37:25 PT