While Waiting at the Airport
By Mike Shade

The weather on Saturday February 28, 1998 looked ominous for most of the day. The clouds seemed to be getting thicker by the hour and the weather reports were confused and not in agreement. However, a few stout individuals (Sandra Macika, Jay Freeman, Marsha Robinson, Mark Wagner, Jeff Blanchard [?], John Pierce [?], and myself ) decided to make the drive to the Bonny Doon (BD) airport to join members of the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club for a little observing. This location is in the Santa Cruz mountain at an elevation of 2000' feet or so. It took Mark Wagner about an hour to drive from Los Gatos and Jay Freeman under an hour from Palo Alto. From Boulder Creek, it took me perhaps 25 minutes. This is an old private airport. There is an obvious light dome to the west and north west from Santa Cruz, and the glow from San Jose is visible to the north. There is some local light pollution, namely from houses that border the airport. On several occasions a floodlight would come on from a neighboring house, annoying those present. The locals mentioned that this had never been a problem prior to this and indeed the light would switch off after a few minutes. There were passing cars on Empire Grade road and their headlights would cause some annoyance. I think that setting up in a different place or better positioning of our vehicles would have alleviated this problem. It was difficult to judge sky darkness due to the high clouds that were almost continually drifting over. It was certainly darker than Montebello, and perhaps not quite as dark as the Peak. All in all, it was not a bad spot. The locals thought that the night was about a "C" and that it is often much better than we experienced. If there is a fog covering Santa Cruz, they mentioned that it can get quite dark. Soon after arriving I set up my 1987 vintage 6" f/8 Astro-Physics refractor on G-11 mount. Mark had his 14.5, Marsha had her 10", Jay had his 6" Intes, John had a 8" SCT, and Jeff had his 8" reflector. There were a number of other telescopes in attendance. Almost as soon as the sun set the clouds began to dissipate. It was good to see those things in the sky....some bright, they often twinkle....oh yes, I remember that they are called stars. The first object was M1, looking nice at about 50X or so (26mm). Next I tracked down the galaxy M74. This object was tough in the 6" due to the clouds that were drifting over. At 50X it was large but very dim. Since Orion seemed to be in the clear, I looked for NGC1729, a magnitude 13 galaxy. I have looked for this from my yard in Boulder Creek but have never been sure I have found it. After some searching, I did indeed find it. It was very small and looked like a slight change in contrast from the background sky. Mark confirmed the find. The pair of galaxies M81 and M82 showed an obvious difference in size and structure. M81 was rounder and of more even brightness but M82 was thin and I thought I saw some interesting differences in contrast in the core. M65 and M66, galaxies in Leo were fairly easy as were M95 and M95. The open cluster M67 showed well. The Galaxy NGC2672 was similar to NGC1729-small, dim, and difficult to detect. The owl nebula (or M97) was an easy catch but seeing much detail was difficult. It looked almost round and of even brightness. Of course I also looked at M44, M42, M45, M46, and the moon through others' telescopes. I would say that this location is a fine one, especially for those of us who live on "this side of the hill" and don't want to drive very far. While not quite as dark as the Peak, being 25 minutes from my front door adds to its desirability. I will visit this site in the future I'm sure and I thank the Santa Cruz Club for having us.