Well, Herb Kain and I met at Fremont Peak last night about 7:30 and set up my scope (Ultima 2000) and gear and waited for dark. Herb got me into astronomy a couple of years ago; he's been doing it for several years and I'm just completing Year One of regular observing, but I've seen more objects than he has (even though he knows the night sky a lot better than I do) and I can't get him to take his C-8 out with us. He just sits at the table and barks out search orders! (Well, he was my senior resident at Stanford 40 years ago, when I was an intern, and he's never really gotten over it.)
The night was pretty dark; the fog-cloud cover for the lowlands came in and went out again, so there were some vally lights. Seeing was good, not great; I couldn't split epsilon lyrae beyond three parts. We started with Mercury after the sun was down, then went through the NightWatch spring charts, the Celestron tours for April, May and June and a few add-in's from Herb's list, about three dozen objects from start to finish. Mostly good views. My next series I think will be John Barra's (Peoria Astronomical Society) The 100 Messier Missed; it looks very interesting.
I have developed a nice routine for my level of viewing: setup and alignment with the original equipment 26mm plossl, viewing of large field objects with my Tele-Vue 55mm plossl, planet viewing with a Panoptic 19mm and an 8mm Radian, then general viewing of everything else with a BW Optic Binoviewer and twin Ultima 30's. I use a viewing chair. The combo of binoviewer and chair makes for incredible comfort in observing; *no* residual neck or back ache, eye strain or general fatigue; highly recommended!
Herb and I were alone in the southwest parking lot; no rangers, few locals and no visiting campers. At one point in the night, I did think I heard Herb at two places at once, but the Herb in the front seat turned out to be the resident fox, who was investigating what was left of my snacks supply (not much, I assure you!). Steve Sergeant did pull in the parking lot to say hello, then went down to the observatory to view with the FPOA; he said that Jane Houston Jones was there as the head honcho for the night. Herb later asked my who Jane Houston Jones was and as I recited some of her bona fides in a kind of reverent mantra, there was a tap-tap down the parking lot, preceded by a swaying red glow- rather ethereal- and Jane Houston Jones herself emerged from the night to say hello (Steve had told her we were there!) and welcome us to the observatory session. How nice! When I packed-up at midnight (daily ten mile bike ride for Saturday AM followed by all-day grandchild adventure followed by dinner out and a San Jose Rep play), Herb did go down to the observatory.
All in all, a nice night; I do believe I'm beginning to get the hang of things!