Well, just got back from what I consider a very enjoyable evening observing at Del Valle. Kudos and thanks to Dave Bush for opening the gate and for the pleasant company. (Yes Bruce, we did make contact, thank you for steering me to Dave.) After stopping for gas, munchies, a beer for my beer tray that also doubles as a tripod, I headed out of SF...thought I was making good progress until I got to the bridge...you'd think that a giant gila monster was attacking the city with all the traffic leaving! Finally made it to Del Valle after about 50 minutes of driving.
So we set our telescopes up. I ended up only bringing the 120mm refractor (Voyager). By the time we got everything up, the sky had cleared most nicely. A little bit of light doming but I expected that, thought it was going to a lot worse though, glad it wasn't.
I mainly looked for clusters most of the 3 hours we were there. I split Mizor and Alcor very nicely, thank you. I am really pleased with this scope. Jupiter and Saturn were stunning as well as Orion's Nebula (this is almost the same stuff I viewed at Plettstone a month ago, but hey, it still fasinates me). Dave helped me with M81 and 82...very elusive especially when the orientation is upside down from the summer months. Bagged M36, 37 & 38 in Auriga as well as the double star just above Bellatrix in Orion. Got M41 and M44. In addition, M35, also, which was just beautiful. I plan to go back to all these clusters again at an even darker site. There were some more in Canis Major, Cephus and Puppis that I had wanted to see but didn't get around to them because I spent so much time on the former.
Now, I also had my Kendricks Dew Removal Systems on and all I have to say, never leave home without it! It was such a pleasure not to have to worry about the dew. However, the interior of my truck was not so lucky! Every last bit of it was covered in a pretty mid-heavy dew.
So now I'm off to bed, having gotten my photon fix and growing closer to my 'scope...I hope that Coe was just as good or better for all of you who braved the possibilities of it not clearing. Night to all and pleasant star dreams,