by Mark Taylor
The Lassen weather conditions could be better...
You can say that again!! I'm back already. Here's my report:
I arrived late in the evening on Wednesday, but it was fully clouded out. Nonetheless, people were heading to Devastated Area with high hopes (and cold beer) as I pulled into the camping area, but they were back an hour later. For 15 minutes around 10:30 it cleared up -- just enough to trick most of the crowd into returning to Devastated for the second try that night (fortunately for me, I was still unloading gear and saw it re-cloud-up before getting similarly sucked in by the mega-sucker-hole).
Thursday brought a little daytime rain. That night, I was the sole soul who went up to Bumpass Hell parking. At 8:00 it was 49 degrees and calm. I carefully set up my gear and got it aligned. The pre-twilight haze over the Southern valley turned into Purple Haze after sunset. I managed to take a picture of a Mir pass (to be sure things were working right) before I noticed the crystal clear sky flashing from lightning. I couldn't tell where it was coming from; only that the whole starry sky was flashing.
So into the car I dashed (to avoid possible electrocution) where I waited for 40 minutes, hoping it would stop (and also hoping my scope wouldn't get rained on or zapped!) From in the car, during the 9:30 twilight, I could see M6, M7, and the M8/20 areas bright and clear. The Milky Way was shining. But I could tell that seeing was poor, as some stars seemed to vanish for an instant, and others would brighten (like slo-mo twinkling).
By 10:10, the lightning flashes were getting brighter and more frequent (and the sky still filled with stars). I didn't like the thought of being at such a high elevation and so completely in the open, so I had an adrenalin-filled disassembly: I started making dashes out of the car long enough to disengage manageable hunks of equipment, jump back into the car with it, and disassemble/pack it there (repeat 10 times). It was 51 degrees as I pulled out. People were still set up in Devastated as I drove by, and they stayed there until 2-2:30 in spite of the lightning and their f/long lightning rods.
Friday morning I watched the tall clouds form again, taking over the blue sky. I was debating coming home early when the thunder started. That was it for me, and I immediately started breaking camp. The rain started before I finished, so half of it got thrown into the van in haste.
As I drove up the road it rained cats, dogs, and small chunks of ice for about a half hour (I even had to pull over for 10 minutes). The rain continued all the way up-and-over the Bumpass side of the park. Of course if was clear as we descended from the park (but the clouds persisted in looming over the mountain as we drove away). From what I could tell, the whole Sierra range was under storm clouds.
Hopefully the remaining observers will get some good photons before it's all over, but I had seen enough for this year. (Note to self: avoid Lassen during Summers following strong El Nino seasons)
As for the rest of my 5-day weekend, I plan to go somewhere (probably the Peak) Saturday night so I can get at least a few photons during my vacation.
Better luck next time, I suppose.