by Jay Reynolds Freeman
I drove Harvey up Mount Hamilton to help out with the Lick Observatory public program Friday, 23 June, 2000. It was a concert night -- a couple played gypsy-style music very well -- followed by lectures and telescoping. The sky was clear and the seeing was okay, but San Jose was very bright. Notwithstanding, I was able to show spiral detail in M51 to many guests, and to describe star-formation in the Lagoon Nebula area to many others.
The 36-inch refractor was set on M13 for the public -- I had seen that object through that instrument before, so didn't go in. After hours, we volunteers had a chance to view the Ring Nebula through it. Seeing was only okay, so the central star was in and out. However, I and another observer independently noticed a radial color variation in the ring itself -- most of it was green, but the outer periphery had a ruddy hue.
Lick's sprinkler system for the foliage in the courtyard east of the main building turned on rather unexpectedly at about midnight; two of us had set up close enough to the sprinkled area to get our equipment somewhat sprinkled, too, but no permanent harm done, I believe. I have sent EMail to the Lick folks reminding them to deal with the problem.
Sandra Macika and I were the wetback telescope operators. We commiserated as we took down. Sandra hadn't been around TAC much of late, and was eager to hear the latest gossip. I protested that I hadn't heard much gossip, and what I did know about was all old news, but she was very eager, so I was forced to elaborate upon the state of my ignorance. I noted that there had been plenty of talk about the drug smuggling, the prostitution ring was an open secret, and the spy case had made it to the Supreme Court on appeal. But that wasn't enough for Sandra: she mentioned several specific matters for which she wanted updates. I hadn't heard about any of them, and what's more, I was simply shocked...