How was the seeing at the Peak last night?

by John Gleason

I have just returned from a night at Fremont Peak where the seeing was poor and the night was very cold. Fog rolled in and out, and the mean temps hovered around 37 degrees. Hollister light dome was blinding. No fun at all as the fog did not reach the cities only my telescope.

Of course after Jay Freeman left, the fog cleared but humidity remained very high and the seeing remained around 3 arc seconds. Yuck. Mars was a featureless, orange tennis ball. Star clusters, galaxies were soft. Too tired to drive home, I spent the night. Clear this Saturday morning, no fog, but windy.

It is hard to say what tonight's conditions will bring. During early twilight hours, we had excellent, steady views of Venus, and then later Mars, but conditions suddenly worsened. Jay indicated that we were very close to the boundary of cold and warm air, as the fog seemed to form around us.

So, should you go? Yes.

Bring warm clothes, hot drink, dew removing equipment. Don't have breakfast at the Mission Cafe.