by Jay Reynolds Freeman
I went to Fremont Peak for the night of August 26-27, 2000. Dense fog had developed over the coastal plain in late afternoon, and remained throughout the night, or at least till 0330, when I left. At some time during the night, it also spread inland a ways -- the valley from Gilroy up through San Jose was fogged out when I drove back. In consequence, the Peak was *very* dark. Seeing for my C-14 was at most so-so -- I didn't notice much seeing jitter at 244x, but higher magnifications were not of much use. Despite the fog below, the Peak had an inversion for much of the night; my weather gadget recorded a minimum temperature of 20 C and relative humidities in the low 30 percents.
There were eight or nine telescopes set up in the southwest lot. Dave North wandered by and reported six or seven by the Observatory, and over a dozen on Coulter row. I don't believe I knew any of the other folks in the southwest lot.
The new volunteer host was getting everybody to fill out a fee envelope, even people like me who had a permit, so the park folks would know what kind of use they were getting, and it looked like they were getting a whole lot of astronomers. I think he said the fee was a dollar for non-overnight-camping astronomy use. I was careful to check the "other" box and write in "astronomy" in the envelope section about purpose of visit. He was most careful about his vehicle lights when he drove into and out of the parking lot, and encouraged us to drape the chain over the gatepost at the new metal gate to the southwest lot, to discourage unwanted visitors. He said he hoped all the astronomers knew the gate was only dummy-locked, and that astronomers were more than welcome.
There are two new white strobes on one of the radio towers at the summit of the Peak, but I did not consider them any impediment either to dark adaptation or to night vision.
I spent most of the night working dark nebulae, some as far south as almost skimming the hilltop, and others down where the light dome of Salinas would have been if there hadn't been all that wonderful fog. I also chased a handful of galaxies in places most people wouldn't think to find them, and had my best-ever tour of the Veil Nebula complex, in the C-14 at 98x with an Orion Ultrablock filter.
More details later, perhaps. However, the Peak appeared friendly and viable as an astronomy site, and quite a lot of people seemed to be using it.