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I was unable to get away Friday afternoon as I had planned, and I was not in the mood to drive up to Lassen for one night of observing on Saturday.
I had thought to join some of the East Bay TACos at Lake Sonoma since it was discussed as an option to the Peak on the TAC list, but the wind that was blowing here in San Francisco Saturday afternoon gave me second thoughts about being so close to the coast so I packed up my gear and headed east for the Sierra Foothills.
I’m glad I did! We had a fantastic night on Saturday, I was at my telescope from sundown till 4:30 am!
I was able to view some really faint DSO’s down to 14mag in my 12.5" and there were two 20 incher’s there to confirm my observations. Needless to say, the owners of the 20’’ scopes were impressed with what I was able to do with so small an aperture scope. 8^)
At about 3:30 I killed a half million rod cells by looking at Jupiter! There was tons of detail on the planet, and I watched the GSR transit the disk. The view of Saturn was fabulous! The tilt of the Planet and it’s rings is just perfect for observation, allowing a very detailed view of the ring structure. As I crawled into my tent Hercules was just above the eastern horizon, beckoning. But I was just to beat to heed the call, maybe next time.
I’m sorry I was not able to make the First Annual Alan Nelms Memorial Star Party and observe with my TACo friends, hopefully next year I’ll be in a position to make both Lassen trips.