The gear was packed and the sky was clear. After 17 minutes in the 580/880/980 maze I looked up at the sky and noticed thick clouds rolling in over the East Bay. As I drove down 580 the clouds were covering more and more of the sky. "Think microclimates," I thought to myself. Sure enough, as I drove out over the hills and into Dublin the sky cleared.
The trip to Del Valle was easy and quick. When I arrived at 8:30pm, Bruce Jensen had already begun setting up his gear. The pullout in front of the fire road was very large, probably large enough to hold 8 to 10 vehicles with room for scopes and equipment. The view from this was really quite remarkable with a real panoramic view of the sky - quite a bit better than the views from Fremont Peak. I was impressed.
Very soon Bruce Picket arrived and then Paul Sterngold. The early part of the evening proved to be a little bit distracting due to the number of cars passing by, but by 10:30pm the traffic had died down and there was only the very occassional vehicle. The evening started as the "evening of the globular cluster". We probably spent a good hour doing nothing but looking at various globulars. M5 in Serpens was a big hit. Then it was on to M10 and M12 in Ophiuchus, M3 in Canes Venatici, M4 in Scorpius and M22 in Sagittarius.
After a while, the bright fuzzy phase came to an end and I decided to start going after some of the Messier objects I had on my list. M81/M82 were fairly easy to spot in my 80mm short tube. Then I moved on to M51 which I had never really seen by my own devices - I spotted M51 in the 10x50 bino's. Both M51 and it's companion were clearly visible in the short tube. Then it was on to M101 in Ursa Major. I had a difficult time finding the object until I was able to spot a *very* faint, but fairly large patch of haze. I asked Bruce Jensen for some help and he confirmed that it was *very* faint. Still, it was nice to be able to spot it! However, M101 marked the end of my galaxy search for the evening.
By now the Milky Way had risen a bit closer to the zenith and Sagittarius was high enough in the sky to prove itself very interesting. The dark lanes of the Milky Way were visible, as was the central bulge of the galaxy. I took a peak at M8 and M20 with the 19mm Panoptic and the Ultrablock filter - very nice. Then I moved over to M6 and M7 in Scorpius, got 'em. Then it was on to M17 and M16 around the border of Serpens. I found that I was able to fit M17 and M16 in the same field with the 19mm Panoptic! This was a beautiful site to behold.
After the beauty of two nebulae in one field, I decided to take some time and scan through the Milky Way with the Bino's. I always enjoy doing this and this particular evening proved to be a lot of fun because soon there were several of use scanning the Milky Way with the great wonder and enthusiasm.
Pretty soon I mentioned to Bruce Jensen that I had never seen the Veil Nebula. I knew, more or less, where to look from reading the star charts, but I'd never seen it through a telescope. Bruce's OIII filter proved to be just the right thing for the occasion. We all took a peek at the Veil and it was truly beautiful. I'm very much looking forward to seeing at Lassen in really dark skies. What a wonder! I also mentioned to Bruce J. that I'd never been able to see the North American Nebula, not even at Fremont Peak. Apparently the North America needs really dark skies as it exhibits extremely low surface brightness.
By now it was getting late. Perseus and Andromeda had risen above the horizon in the northeast. I took a quick peak at the double cluster in Perseus and M31 in Andromeda and decided it was time to pack it in. What a wonderful evening of viewing! I drove down the hill, rather bleary eyed and still cold, quite oblivious to the sky. When I got to the bottom of the hill I noticed that I couldn't see any stars. Some very patch fog had rolled in, but we were spared at Del Valle due to the altitude!
All in all, it was a great evening. I managed to see more Messier objects on my own, with the bino's and the short tube, than I'd ever seen in one night before. Over 22 objects in one evening. This was also the first time I had made a kind of plan for the evening and it really did improve the experience for me. That evening also proved to me that I really need a larger scope to work with if I'm going to be doing regular observing, esp if I want to be able to resolve globular clusters into stars and see *any* detail in galaxies. Now I don't see it so much as a question of wanting a larger scope, it's more a question of reality - I need a larger scope!
East Bay lurkers, Del Valle is quite a reasonable "in-town" site. The drive from from El Cerrito to Del Valle, in traffic was just under an hour. The trip back took me about 45 minutes (one side of a tape!) and it was not at all mentally draining. I had driven up to Mt. Tam a few weeks back and the windy road up to Mt. Tam is a mental challege, esp. after a long night of observing. Also, Del Valle is the darkest East Bay site I have seen so far. The other big plus is the viewing location (yes, there is the occasional car) is not on park lands and there are no curfews, permits, or locks to deal with. I would suggest, however, that it would not be a good idea to go there by yourself; I would have been a bit nervous there by myself, but with the four of us it was really great.