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We may not have had the dark skies and elevation of Lassen, but I just wanted to report what a great night it was up at Fremont Peak last night. About a dozen of us congregated in the SW parking lot, with a number of others set up on Coulter Row or near the ranger's residence.
According to
Radio Shack, windless temperatures in the SW lot were generally in the upper
50s to low 60s throughout the night (a balmy 63F at 4:40am), with the
humidity never rising above 33%, and generally hanging in the range of
25~27%. With the air so dry, sparks were literally flying as you came near
selected 'scopes. Although there's never any complete escape from the light
domes of Monterey, Santa Cruz, etc., relatively low-level fog blanketed the
surrounding areas throughout the night. The seeing was excellent, save for
the area immediately above the Peak itself, which continued to radiate
throughout the evening. I really missed seeing many of you "regulars" last
night, but the call of Lassen is a hard one to resist, isn't it. The observing started long before sunset, with 0x views of Venus in
daylight. Just amazing how bright that puppy is ... once you spot it, that
is. <grin> Not long after the sun dropped below the foggy horizon (with
binos, the green-flash was easy to see), the SW lot filled with visitors.
Quite a few were expecting to view the sky through a reportedly scheduled
visit to the Challenger 30-inch, but the observatory was apparently closed
last night. So many of the amateurs graciously put their intended observing
lists off to the side for a bit, and spent two to three hours showing off
the Moon, Venus, Mars, and the brighter Messiers. It was quite an evening
for globulars, open clusters and selected planetaries, drawing the ever
popular "WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!" and "YAGOTTALOOKATTHIS!" routines.
The Veil
Nebula got quite a bit of attention as well. (The parents of some of the
kids looking through the 'scopes are definitely going to be spending money
long before the holiday season arrives!) Although a couple of visitors
stayed until Jupiter and Saturn had risen, most folks were able to get on
with their personal observing plans sometime between 11:00pm and midnight.
It sounds like Jay Freeman had a great night (can't wait to see the report,
Jay), while folks like "Crazy Ed" Erbeck spent a fair amount of time
splitting (and showing) tight doubles. The seeing really allowed for some
high magnification, even if the brightness of the sky waxed and waned a bit
throughout the night.
Two shadow transits of Jupiter were wonderful to
watch, and I was actually able to *use* 600x on my 12-inch LX200, rather
than just *play* with the magnification. It was a very fun night, with a
lot of eyepiece and telescope view sharing. Outside of a darker sky, the
only thing that would have made it more enjoyable would have been if all the
TACos and their friends could have been there. (Of course, I can't wait to
hear the Lassen reports, and already have the drool-towel in place!)