This is my first observers report so be gentle... I went to Freemont Peak Saturday - my mission had two primary objectives:

1)Take my wife camping (her first time)

2)Get a quiet night on the peak to practice using my new superwedge (for a 10" LX 200 f10) and maybe take a few photos with the new setup.

Objective number one was a completed succesfully - Wife likes to camp (read: "Many more nights with the telescope now available") The park was mostly empty, temps warm but not HOT like the valley (Mid 80s daytime, down to 65 at night maybe).

Objective number two was mostly succesfull - I have learned how to have a guaranteed clear not on the peak - GO WHEN THE MOON IS SO BRIGHT YOU CAN READ A BOOK UNDER IT! - As the sun set Saturday night thunder clouds to the east had me worried but I figured with the moon it would be an early night no matter what. As the sun set, the clouds disappeared and the fog rolled into the valley to the West - To bad the fog wouldn't help with the moon...

Mine was the only scope setup (at least on the West side of the park - I didn't bother to walk to the observatory), the wind was gusty, visibly shaking the telsecope. By 10pm the wind was settling down and I was finally getting a fairly good polar alignment (however pointing accuracy was no good if anybody has any tips I'd love the advice).

Views of the moon were the best I have seen in this area (I'm from Nevada and remember high mountain views unilke any I have ever seen this close to the ocean) - I was just driffting around the moon with my 8.8mm (Meade UW) a lense I rarely get to use because of the high magnification. I snapped a few photos which I expect back from the lab tonight.

One draw back being the only person with a telescope is that a good deal of the other park visitors expected to see a lot more scopes - at one time I had a line ten deep which seriously bit into my wedge training time but It wasn't like I was going to look at all the M objects anyways. I was a pretty bad host though, with just the moon and mars to look at - I offered rain checks to all and continued the wedge fine tunning.

I wrapped up the night with my good friend M13, not bad considering the moonlight. I packed up about 12:30 and climbed into the tent for one of my longest naps ever on the peak.

I did get up one more time at 4:00am (okay, I was forced into bathroom escort duty because of potential bear noises "Really dear it's okay -just wild pigs"

"Wild pigs my a** your taking me to the bathroom")

The sky was beautiful, Jupiter just screaming "Bet you wish you had that 8.8mm on me now" - I even contemplated pulling the scope back out but just then a gust of wind rustled the bushes (might have been the pigs) so I decided to enjoy a restfull sleep instead.

Clear Skies...