by Paul LeFevre
Well, folks, I have a new favorite observing site...
Saturday evening, I left home to try out another new (to me) San Diego County observing site. Two miles from home, I hop on County Road S6, a wide and smooth two-lane highway through Valley Center and the Rincon Indian Reservation. 21 miles later, a left turn onto County Road S7, which climbs steeply but is also wide, smooth, and well-maintained. 7 miles later, the magical sign appears: Palomar Observatory, one mile. Less than 45 minutes of good, smooth roads and I was at Mecca: the huge domes of the 200-inch and other telescopes looming in front of me. I stood and stared for a while, then drove back down a mile or so into the County Park, and found a good place to set up near an empty campground. On the way I stopped at the Palomar Mountain lodge to grab a sandwich...four gentlemen were leaving as I walked in, and after I ordered my grub one of them poked his head back into the door, and asked if that was my telescope in the car outside. He smiled when I answered affirmatively, and told me I should come up to the big dome on one of the public nights, he'd be happy to show me around, since he was one of the staff astronomers. He took off before I could get his name...but I will be sure to take him up on the offer!
Palomar Mountain tops out at about 5600 ft., and my observing area was just a little below that at about 5400 ft. A little altitude can really darken the sky, let me tell you! I had heard how the lights in the valley below (mainly from Escondido, my new home) had "ruined" the sky for the professionals at Palomar...but I guess everything is relative. This place is darker than any of the Bay Area sites I frequented, and damn near as dark as the Mt. Laguna site I visited last week -- but only 33 miles from my house! The site I chose had a clear view to the South/South East, and only a small ridge blocking the horizon to the West and North. I set up the 10" LX200 in alt-az mode (no pictures tonight), and waited for some alignment stars to show up. In the meantime, I watched the gorgeous crescent Moon and Mercury slip down the Western sky into a gorgeous sunset...and couldn't resist taking a few pictures (will post them later). Soon Arcturus and Spica were visible, I did my two-star alignment, and got busy.
I spent a couple of hours as twilight finding bright Messiers -- an easy task using the computerized goto. Took a time out around 10:00 PM to assess the sky conditions, and got a count of 31 in the TAC Triangle, giving a mag 6.3 sky. Probably should have used my glasses, since the sky looked darker than that! Escondido to the South was indeed throwing up a light dome, but only about 10-degrees up from the horizon, with another smaller glow to the North-West from Temecula. As the evening wore on, many lights went out and a fairly thin marine layer covered up the objectionable valley lights even more, and the skies turned very dark. When the Milky Way rose a bit later, it almost took my breath away -- it's been years since I've seen it so well.
Spent most of my time getting started on the Herschel 400 list (is it cheating to use the computer? If so, I don't mind cheating...it gives me more time to actually OBSERVE the objects, and to look for gems in nearby fields). A few locals stopped by around 11:00 PM, and I gave them the M13-M5-M51 etc. tour of highlights, which they really seemed to enjoy. Other than their 30-minute visit, I was alone all night -- though I did keep hearing rustling in the bushes near me, which was probably a racoon or two that never made a public appearance.
I packed up around 2:30 AM, with a glorious Milky Way high in the sky. 30 minutes later I was pulling into my driveway (it's faster going DOWN, no doubt about it!). Now I know how all you South-Bay folks got in more time at Coe & the Peak than I did...being 30 miles or so from a site is wonderful. Being 33 miles from such a great site is pure heaven! I just need to get some other observers up with me, so my imagination doesn't keep turning those unseen racoons in the bushes into mountain lions...