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Saturday was a beautiful end to several great days and nights at Lasssen State Park. During the day I hiked up to Ridge Lake.This small glacial lake is located only a mile or so from the Sulfur springs area. The trail up is steep enough to provide a bit of a work out, and to keep the crowds away. It passes through meadowland full of flowers, through pine and fir woodlands, and alongside a stream rushing with snow melt run off. The last sections of the trail were still covered with fair sized snow fields but these were easy to cross and the snow underfoot provided a nice contrast to the beautiful warm weather and clear blue skies above. Ridge Lake was gorgeous: clear, guiet, secluded, and ringed with patches of forest, snow and ice sheets, ond the steep rubbly mountainsides of Brokeoff Mountain and surrounding peaks. I brought a fishing rod and a pack lunch and spent several blissful hours fishing from the warm rocks on the shores of this classic glacial lake. There was a fair population of brook trout in the lake and I caught and released 4 or 5 during the afternoon. The combination of scenery, exercise, solitude, geology, and biology made this one of the most enjoyable hikes I have had in a long time. The Ridge Lake trail is just one of dozens of trails available in the Park but provides a good example of the many things to do during the day at a Lassen Star party. After three days at park, I still felt like I had only scratched the surface of the many things to do and see in the area.
The nights were equally good. Very, very dark skies and good seeing made for memorable views of both old and new objects. (Many old objects actually looked new when viewed from this location). I will spare you a long list of object observed over four long nights. However, Saturday night after the public star party I stayed long after most others had left. I work through Aquila and Scutum on that final night and was struck by the beauty of many of the fields and objects. Two Barnard Dark Nebula won my award for best views of the whole trip. B142 and B143 are located between two bright stars of Aquila's western wing. In a low power eyepiece, both were spectacular complex patches of blackness against a rich Milky Way field. The dark patches extended into the star fields with jutting ledges and shelves. The shapes of these two dark nebula were strikingly reminiscent of many of the geological formations inside and on the way to the Park. These two took my breath away and will be on the select list of objects to return to over and over again.
I had had such a great day and night Saturday that I kept observing till the sun was obviously brightening the night sky. The Pleides and Auriga were up by the time I left around 4:30 or so, several hours after everyone else had left the parking lot. At about 4:15 I checked in on Jupiter and Saturn, then high above the horizon. A moon was just beginning to pop out from behind Jupiter as I turned the eypiece to the planet. Great timing and a nice finale for a wonderful trip.
Many thanks to Mark and the rest of the TAC gang for organizing the Lassen Star Party. I had never been before,and now can't wait to go back.