Fremont Peak being clouded out on Saturday, June 20, 1998, the usual suspects -- all would-be telescopists -- recongregated at Henry Coe State Park, some twelve miles of twisty road northeast of central Morgan Hill, California. Coe has a parking lot on the access road, half a mile or so short of the park proper. It was full of telescopes -- Newtonians to at least eighteen inches, refractors to 180 mm, lots of SCTs, and so on.

I brought two: Refractor Red -- my 55 mm Vixen fluorite finished in dayglow paint, and my Meade 127ED 5-inch refractor. Conditions were wet, and the thick marine layer that shut down the Peak loomed threateningly across the valley, so I did not set up the Meade. I spent most of the evening working on my Herschel 400 program with the little telescope, logging 32 objects. Twice the objective started to dew, but it was easy to dismount the tube and put it in my car, where the mist cleared in five or ten minutes.

I spent a little time socializing, and also helped an eager Messier hunter unravel central Virgo. I usually approach this area by starting with the easy naked-eye grouping of rho Virginis and two adjacent stars, then working north to M60 and M59. M58, M87, M86, and M84 lie spaced out in a nearly straight line to the west, and with the latter two galaxies in the field, one can follow Markarian's Chain out to several of the other Messier galaxies in the area.

Actually, it is usually we observers who are spaced out. Large galaxies are generally staid and dignified. But I can't say as much for the small ones.

At about midnight, an increasing wind swept the marine layer up and over us. One observer thought his telescope had broken, when M22 suddenly disappeared. The inundation by fog was very fast -- we made comments about "Fogzilla" and all.

On Sunday evening, I went back to Coe for another try. I set up in the public campground, which was largely empty. One of the two other occupants was an observer with a C-8. I brought the same equipment, and logged another 22 Herschel 400 objects with Refractor Red.

I did set up my Meade refractor this time, mostly to check out my new Losmandy G-11 equatorial mounting. The Losmandy is a popular item, and justly so: It is solid and well built, sets up easily in the field -- there are six subassemblies (three legs, tripod head, equatorial head, and counterweight shaft), plus counterweights and mounting plates, but only four bolts. The components are all reasonably manageable individually, for transportation. The whole thing dwarfs the Great Polaris that I have often used, and provides a much more vibration-resistant mounting. The Losmandy is heavier, which means more trips to the car when loading and unloading at home, but it is almost as quick to set up as is my Great Polaris. I expect to use the new mounting for a variety of equipment.

I bought the G-11 from Spectra Astro-Systems; it took nearly three weeks to get here, which was a little slow on their part, but they were having a sale on G-11s, and I did place my order just two days before the start of the Riverside Telescope Makers' Convention. The Spectra folks were otherwise polite, helpful, and professional; I received an unsolicited courtesy 'phone call, at their expense, after receiving the merchandise, to make sure everything was okay. (It was.) I would feel comfortable doing business with Spectra again.

The Losmandy polar alignment telescope has a different reticle pattern than does the Great Polaris, and is perhaps a little easier to use. The telescope was still tracking Antares well a couple of hours after my quick alignment.

I had had some worries that the lack of manual slow motions for the Losmandy would be an impediment. It is still to soon to say for sure, but I think I was wrong. It will take familiarity with the clutches to find the level of tension that works best, but the combination of grab and heave for slewing and electric motors at 16 times siderial rate for setting, seems satisfactory. The hand controller is cleverly wired so that one can either get the adjustable guiding rate or the setting rate with no extra buttons -- press the one you want for guiding, and then press its opposite number to accelerate to the setting rate. There are many selectable guide rates, and your choice of four speeds for the rotation of the polar axis -- solar rate, lunar rate, siderial rate, and King rate. That last is what you use to track the elusive Elvis Nebula. Actually, it is a compromise rate which takes into account atmospheric refraction.

To power all these options, I bought a small rechargeable 12-volt lead-acid battery unit from Orion, which is handy and portable.

The only real fault with the G-11 so far is that Losmandy does not supply a manual for it -- you have to get one from Celestron, and now that they have stopped carrying the G-11 as part of their line, those documents may get scarce. Celestron customer service was quite happy to send me one, though, and did so at no charge, by Priority Mail postmarked the same day I made my 'phone call. The system is not that complicated, even with the drive electronics, and one could probably get by without one. Yet I hope the Losmandy people make arrangements to provide some form of written manual.

Fog terminated my second night at Coe at almost the same time as it had the first, but I considered the weekend astronomically successful.