Friday night was cold at Plettstone with temperatures dipping below freezing. Fog in the Central Valley was thick and blocked out all stray light from the distant cities. A thin layer of ice settled on everything in the observatory early in the evening. The skies were very clear and steady. I ran my supernova search for the night and had time left over to shoot one pretty picture of NGC2841 (see http://www.plettstone.com/new.htm). I have imaged this galaxy before and have never been able to get this kind of detail. At 2 AM, the valley fog spilled over the mountains and shut me down.
Saturday night was very nice from 6 PM until midnight. Temperatures were much milder, not dropping below 40 degrees. No ice or even dew, very dry. The skies were somewhat unsteady so I devoted my time to tuning equipment and visual observing. It was nice to look at things again. The supernova in NGC1637 remains bright and is still fun to look at.
We had a great weekend of astronomy. Lots of observing time and still got to bed early enough to really enjoy it.
If anyone would like to visit this coming weekend, I'll be there. Please email me privately if you are interested.