I went to Coe instead of Fremont Peak Saturday night. I find the drive to Coe easier for me from Palo Alto, and I much prefer the open horizons at Coe, and the fairly dark skies in the direction of new objects coming up in the east.
Brief report:
Other observers: There were 6 or 7 telescopes set up in the lot when I arrived about 10 pm, I didn't recognize any of the other observers and most of the scopes were refractors or SCTs.
Conditions: Warm and calm all night. Not enough fog to shut down the valley lights. Limiting magnitude test in Bootes-Coronoa triagle gave 20 and 25 stars on two different counts about an hour apart. That corresponds to a limiting mag of 6.1 and 6.3, about what I have seen on other nights without a heavy fog layer.
New strobe light to the west: A bright vertical bank of lights was flashing regularly from what looked like the top of a distant mountain last to the west/south west. The light was bright enough to cause visible sky flash at least 20 degrees away. This is in the direction already most affected by Morgan Hill so it made little difference to the direction I normally look. I still hope it is not a regular new feature however.
Other distractions: I was surprised by the amount of other light and noise from other observers and campers in the lot last night. Lots of bright computer screens, radios, dome lights, unannounced car lights, cars pulling in and out announced with headlights or backup lights. Not the well behaved bunch I'm used to at star parties, and probably a sign of summer and warm weather bringing out people who haven't been to lots of star parties.
Targets: Pluto must have been in the air last night. I too chased it down for the first time in my 7 inch Starmaster and had no trouble locating the field using the chart in the Observer's Handbook. I'll have to check back for movement of the little speck over the next week or so.
The seeing was pretty good at times. Antares gave a nice split at 240X with the companion almost continuosly visible in the 7 inch scope. The little secondary looked like it was towing the large primary along the drift to the west through the eyepiece (position angle of 280 or so).
I tracked down lots of other doubles, and also looked at some more stellar spectra with a SJAA loaner Rainbow Optics spectroscope,
Although I enjoyed a collection of dim galaxies and bright summer favorites before the moon came up, I must say I miss the Herschel 400 list as a way to help organize observing sessions. I'm going to start the Herschel II list as a follow up project, and probably have already picked off a fair number of them while working through other areas.
For others who have done the AL league's Herschel II list, I would appreciate hearing what objects from that list of 400 you found the most challenging. It would be fun to try some of the harder objects up at Lassen with the 7 inch scope, and save the easier ones for nearer town observing.
I just found out today that I will be able to make the tail end of the Lassen trip (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights only). Can't wait to get up there for both the day and night fishing.