On Saturday, Jan. 8th, I made the trip to Fremont Peak. It had been about six months since I had last been to the Peak. The drive down was pleasant and the sky above me was clear, that is until I got to Morgan Hill. At which point I noticed a large cloud bank SW of the Peak. "Just my luck," I thought as I continued the drive.
I was surprised to see that. 156 between 101 and San Juan Bautista had been resurfaced and was as smooth as glass. As I took the road up the mountain it was like being reacquainted with an old friend.
I arrived about 3:45 pm to find the SW lot empty and clear sky overhead. No mounds of dirt or piles of pipe and wood were to be seen in the parking lot. I set up my equipment, popped the top on a cold one, kicked back in my chair and waited for the two other TAC'os I expected to join me, namely Jamie Dillon and Paul LeFevre.
As I sat drinking my beer, I happen to look up. The clear blue sky that was overhead when I set up was now replaced by those clouds I had seen in the SW earlier, and it looked as though it was only going to get worse.
A little while later Jamie drove up. He set up his stuff and we talked about Paul not showing up and explained our being there and our equipment to several day trippers. Two others drove up and began setting up scopes, a young lady named Nancy with a 10" LX 50 and a gentleman whose name I can't remember, but who lurks on TAC with a uniquely design 12.5" Truss Dobs.
At about 4:30 the Park Ranger, Cameron drove up. His driving up and talking with Jamie and I turn out to be one of the highlights of the evening!
One of the first things he said was that "he missed us!" He was very friendly and expressed his wish that the SW lot and Coulter Row could be made astronomy friendly again. He told us that he would provide us with a combo lock and chain for the SW lot gate that he would change every now and then, but that we could get the combination via e-mail.
He also told us how he had been dealing with the rowdy teens that have been giving the park a bad name. He's made many arrests and has given even more tickets to these teens, so much so that the word has gone out to the rowdy crowed that the Peak might not be the best place for them. We had no unwanted visitors the whole night.
So there may yet be hope for the Peak, stay tuned.
I was glad to see Richard and Paul Sterngold show up, seemed like old times
By the time we had finished talking to Cameron I looked around and was shocked to see that telescopes now surrounded us! I made a quick count, 18 scopes were set up by the time the skies cleared. And boy did they clear!
People were parked all over the SW lot and this did not bother the Ranger one bit. He left in a good mood and did not return.
Because of the cloud cover at about 6:30, the Pleiades looked like a faint nebulae, by 7:00 I could count 8 stars naked eye. At first the seeing was not that good but it improved as the night wore on. Transparency was good enough to allow me to see Galaxies down to 14.5 mag. Paul, who was the "big gun" for the evening with his 13.1" picked out 1 or 2 at 15th mag.
Leo cometh!