by Jay Reynolds Freeman
Ok, I'm writing this out of guilt for not going up to Montebello to look at the Moon. It seemed like a long drive up the hill for one object.
I was wondering where you [Rich Neuschaefer] had gone. I arrived at Montebello a few minutes past 8 PM. Rather to my consternation, I did not have a copy of our current permit, therefore, to be sure of remaining on the good side of the rangers, I set up on the shoulder of the road outside the gate. I had brought the Stargazer Steve 3-inch Newtonian. I looked at the Moon, but only briefly, and similarly Jupiter and Saturn. I chased down a few more Messier objects -- bright galaxies like M94 aren't too much bothered by a half moon, even with just three inches of aperture, but M51 did not show its companion, NGC 5195, and I could not spot M101 even though I could identify the field. I did find M63, and globular M3, and Messier double star M40. I looked at a few double stars, reviewed M45 and M41, and then packed up and left.
Yet even though I could probably have seen all this as well from my driveway in Palo Alto, given the Moon, there is still some utility in driving to Montebello: If there had been low-lying fog or scud, a driveway site -- or Houge Park -- might have been clobbered. It is hard to predict those conditions in advance, even just before sunset on a proposed observing night.