The recent week long (June 19-June 28) observing run in the Mendocino National Forest (MNF) with John Hales was a Much needed tonic after a long and wet winter. For those who do not know of this spot, it is in the MNF, north of Clear Lake at an elevation of 4000 feet or so. It is a clearing in the forest I found six years ago when I was in the MNF looking for spots suitable for astronomy. It is remote, being about four and a half-hours driving time from San Jose. There are no facilities and no water. It is well off the beaten path and a very dark location. I was able to see a star of magnitude 6.4 in Ursa Major naked eye. One night of exceptional transparency I thought I glimpsed one of magnitude 6.7. However, it was late and I was tired so I will list this as a possible sighting. John was able to see magnitude 6.5 rather easily.

The weather was unusual this year (what else is new). Since I have been coming to this spot for six years I have a pretty good idea of what the weather is likely to be: warm during the day (80s), cool during the evening (50s-60s). There might be a few puffy clouds over the higher peaks but they dissipate during the evening. Wind is not likely except some afternoon breezes. Well, this year was different. It never got any warmer than the mid 70s; during the initial part of the trip it was in the low 70s. At night it was very humid, creeping up to the high 80% range. This cut down transparency a little bit. We had one night of wind and clouds where no real astronomy was possible. Most nights were rather chilly, in the low 50s. We had a few nights of mid 40s. This was unexpected and not entirely welcome. This year I paid close attention to the forecast from the little weather radio I carry on these outings. I have also recently purchased an electronic weather station from Edmund Scientific. It has temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. A useful little device and I would offer that folks who plan trips like this should purchase a weather radio and listen to it.

I was planning on taking a slew of photographs with the NGT-18 and SBIG ST-4 autoguider. I did indeed take a few pictures. However, the NGT developed a cold and it was not tracking well so that put an end to photography (someone at JMI is going to die!!!!!!!). So, what to do with an 18" telescope under a pristine sky? Rather than run through the long list of objects, I will just offer some highlights....NGC 6826 was round but bright green with an easy central star. NGC 7008 was oblong with numerous darker patches visible. M27 was almost beyond description: the central star was easy and there were perhaps 6 stars embedded in the nebula. The extensions off to the side were readily visible. The veil was incredible with a 20mm Nagler and OII filter (103X). I just spent some time sweeping around. Many parts had an almost three dimensional appearance. The North American Nebula was readily visible, especially the Gulf of Mexico portion with the same setup. The beak of the Pelican nebula was also visible. Of course the central star of M57 was easy with a 2.5mm Vixen LV (822X). I also pushed the limits a bit. Using The Sky astronomy program, I saw galaxy MCG6-37-1 at magnitude 15.5, GCGC196-80 at magnitude 15.6, and finally MCG5-36-20 at magnitude 16.0 (yes, this was tough but when the seeing settled down it would pop into view). This was accomplished with a Tele-View 13mm Plossl (158X).

And what of John? Well, he was busily photographing with his new AP 1200 mount, ST-4 autoguider, and my 6" f/8 AP refractor (what a cheese). It seems that his system worked as desired and I hope that he gets a slew of nice pictures. The trip ended on a sad note. Friday night, while waiting for it to get dark we noticed what looked like a jet contrail. I thought that it was a long contrail. After a time it did not fade and we discovered that it was a searchlight beam. In fact, there were four of these things rotating around the sky for a good part of the evening. I'm not sure where they were coming from. They were moving very slowly, taking perhaps 30 minutes to traverse to sky. They were also pointed down quite low. They were invisible from about 1:00 am to 3:00am but then they were visible again. They were as bright as the Milky Way and reached at least to the zenith. Several possibilities come to mind: some sort of grand opening thing, some sort of "festival", or some new form of advertising for the casinos in Clear Lake (35-45 mi away???). I have never seen searchlights pointed so low or move so slowly. I hope that this is a rare event because if it is not, this superb spot just got ruined. I do however have a line on several other spots to the north, ranging from 10 to 50 miles from the current location. I cannot wait until August when the forest will again ring with the sound of autoguider relays.