This is my record and impressions from the TAC star party at the Pacheco SP on 4-5/97. I would suggest all who attended also report since there are lots of interested readers and comparisons to be made with FP. Mark, Alan and 3 others were present with scopes including a 6" AP, 18" and 14" dob, 8" equatorial reflector my 12" cosmobanana and two more latecomers with binoculars.

I arrived fashionably late at 6:00 pm and had my choice of 100 possible parking locations, all with an excellent field of view and as good as the earlycomers had.

There was a small breeze blowing, and a nice display of antisolar rays at sunset. The earthshine moon and Venus started the evening, and Jupiter was next. The seeing was such that 200x was all that was useful, but later 300x was applied with some good moments in the steadiness. The planet was showing the FRS (faded red spot) and it was moving off the face before too long. Lots of details in the NEB, which is a stronger color than the GRS, including a "peppering" marking. This is at the edge bordering the Equatorial belt, and consists of lots of little dark blue spots, and there were similar at the edge of the SEB, which also had some of the white ovals that accompany the GRS very visible. The equatorial zone had a series of inclined festoons/lines that I noted as the trestlemarks since they reminded me of the 45 degree girders seen in old fashioned railway bridges. Saw the Mir and Shuttle passes. And viewed Saturn - very nice , I'll save the description to keep brief.

As the moon departed and deep - sky conditions began, I took in some familiar sights to compare skies, such as m13 , 31, 33, NGC 253, some of which I viewed in the other scopes as well. I also did some Dark nebulae , since they really test a site. I viewed b97, 312, 118, 88, and later the horsehead. I found they came in very well, and were as good as viewed from FP. The Messier objects also. I did some of my faint planetaries including PK215 -11.1 and IC 1289 (numbers from memory, not notes) and found some better results on these than at FP. Viewed the dim Globular Arp2 and had time to track down the Helix Neb. for a revisit.

Ran out of gas (mental) at midnight and crawled into the van for 120 minutes of inner eyelid inspect, and found our party down to three when I emerged. Two more hours of faintest fuzzies, and then the clouds slowly came in. The first was a small puff, and then a band in the NW, which later grew to a skyfull of whispy cirrus clouds of the type I call Horse tails, which are long and have a curve, or even a full hook at one end. There were plenty of gaps in between the streaks, but these are not always easy to exploit, so at 5:00, I left, leaving two members asleep at the site. On the way out, I found the portolets quite functional and deposited at the Fee box. During the session there had been no bugs, and the only wildlife of note were coyotes. The ground was hard and dust was not a problem. Walking was ok, with no foot-twister holes I could see. There were picnic tables available. A notch in the hills directly south had allowed stars at -48 degrees to be seen. With its low rolling hills, corral fencing, and dark but not perfect skies, it reminds me a lot of the Texas Star Party site (Prude Ranch) when I attended in 95'.

The drive time back is about 15 minutes shorter than at FP. And the lack of narrow width hairpin curves make it a less draining trip for me. The traffic could be heard all night from the site, but no headlights seen. I found that the best way to enter, is to pull off into the truck pulloff/ brake inspect area just short of dinosaur point rd. This siding is connected to the point road with a short dirt road that leaves the pulloff just before it turns back into 152. This allows you to leave 152 without a severe use of brakes.

The breeze was mostly there all night, but was never uncomfortable nor detrimental to the telescope steadiness. I will not venture what the site would be like in Winter months but would like to try. I would not say that this site should replace Fremont Peak, but it would be good to supplement it, especially for any events that need room for lots of observers. I would be glad to use it again.