Observing Saturday Night at Lake Sonoma

by David A. Silva


I just got back from LS. Unfortunately there was a very high amount of smoke in the air. The nearby hills to the northeast when you face Santa Rosa are normally clearly visible without haze. Today you could barely make out an outline of the top ridge.

Stars were sparse to 20 degrees above the horizon. The Milky Way was visible, but a more phantasm compared to clear nights. I could not make out arms in M51 - an easy view normally for me here. Even bright objects like the Lagoon Nebula were lacking breadth of size and normal detail.

Good points were very low wind, very warm temperatures (you know how I usually bundle up, I was in shirtsleeves all night). Dick Flasck did show me a mag 16 quasar in his great homespun 18" Dob - 11.5 billion light years he claimed. I cannot remember the object designation.

You may be better off going south. The smoke definitely got worse as we traversed north from El Cerrito to Santa Rosa, and continued worsening all the way to Geyserville.