We went up to yosemite over the long weekend to take in some cross-country and downhill skiing. Since we were staying at the 5000 ft^H^H^H^H^H^H^H 1524 meter level I thought it would be good to take along some binoculars to look at the stars, should they ever appear.

On sunday night, we got a break. As I was driving back from dinner aroun 9pm I noticed a fairly clear sky, so I took the binoculars out when we got back to the cabin.

As expected the trees really affect the horizon, though it didnt matter much cuz the horizon up there was really yucky. There were also a fair number of lights from the houses where we were staying.. the Yosemite West development, which is near the Badger Pass road on 41. (Driving up to the badger pass parking lot probably would have been better, but I didn't feel like becoming an icy-road statistic.)

I did manage to see M31 at 10:30pm, even though it was fairly low. M36,37,38 in Auriga were fairly bright as they were nearly overhead. Ursa Major was up quite a bit, and I managed to see M81/82, though it was difficult. I looked for M51; couldn't see it, though I've never tried binoculars on it. M42, of course, was big and bright.

As for the weather... it snowed a fair amount (8"^H^H 20 cm) on friday and another foot^H^H^H^H 30cm on saturday and saturday night. The roads were sheets of ice, making walking around in the dark a bit tough. I prefered the hot tub instead.