Bob Czerwinski wrote:
Things really went downhill on Monday night, too. Due to cloud cover, no stars popped out until 11pm'ish. And that was only the western part of the sky. Things certainly got better as time went on ... but I don't think anybody would have been setting up at Bumpass Hell at midnight.
Well, funny you should say that Bob. I set up at sunset at Bumpass Hell on Monday night but skies were almost completely clouded over. I waited two hours or so with no improvement, (and with only one other optimist in the parking lot). We both gave up at 10:45 pm and I decided to drive back to Palo Alto that night. I drove down the mountain, picked up my things at Childs Meadow Lodge on the south side of the park, packed up the car, and started driving down 36 to Red Bluff. However, when I was going back past the Lassen Park entrance road, I looked out the window and saw stars had magically appeared all over the sky. It was already about 11:40 pm but I but I made a quick right turn into the park, drove back up to Bumpass Hell, and had the Starmaster 7 inch Oak Classic set up again and observing by midnight. The seeing was softer than it had been Saturday and Sunday, but the skies looked even more transparent than they had been my other two nights. (I think a cold front may have come through during the day. Sky was much deeper blue most of the way towards the sun during the day on Monday than it had been Sunday).
I was the only one in the parking lot, but had a great night observing and didn't leave till almost 5 am. It was one of those nights where having a small, instant set up Dob made all the difference to whether I got in any observing at all.
By the way, under Lassen skies, the 7 inch scope did great with objects from the Herschel II list. I had sorted objects by magnitude before I left, and I used the trip to test whether I would really be able to see the stuff listed all the way down to mag 14.5. I was able to find every object I looked for, even from the dimmest part of the Herschel II list (a planetary in Cygnus listed at mag 14.5 lots of galaxies in UMa, Canes, and Bootes listed between mag 12.5 and mag 14).
I don't believe the unreliable magnitudes on the list, but no one should let the listed magnitudes deter them from trying the project. The Herschel 400 project was one of the most enjoyable observing projects I have done with a telescope. I was pleased to see that the Herschel II list is already providing a similar mix of both challenges and beautiful objects for a small scope.