by Carl Larson
On sunday night I had a reunion of a sorts - with my telescopes. It has been almost (yikes) 20 months since I've last packed the scopes in the van and headed to darker skies. Way too long - can't let it happen again.
I've met some of you before at Fremont Peak (remember the blue tube home-made 9.25" reflector on the pipe mount?). In fact, Michelle helped me decide on my 18" obsession purchase. But as happens there was a move (still in SJ), work changes, family, and seemingly no time for astronomy. I still lurked to keep tabs on TAC and was always one "next" weekend away from observing.
I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon practicing setting up in the driveway, trying to find all the bits and pieces, locating the star charts (still packed in a box from moving - arghhh), and wiping away spider webs.
Drove up to Fremont Peak with my wife, Kimiko and two other friends, Lela and Sarunya (who had never been observing). We were surprised to find the upper lot was empty of scopes - but within a couple hours there were about 8 observers. We also met Randy the park host (and his dog!). He told us the obervatory was open so my friends could get a sky-tour while I tried to remember how to move the scopes.
Unfortunately the wood screws holding the tube bracket to the mount flange on my 9.25" had pulled free (wood had cracked after 20 years) so I was left with the 18". Since the moon was still up I started off looking at some brighter old friends - M4, lagoon, andromeda, ring. All very impressive - remember I hadn't had the 18" out under "dark" skies yet. After the moon went down I opened the Herald-Bobroff charts and went after some fainter fuzzies. Wow, was I having a blast. I'll have to retrain my brain to move the scope in alt-az but that only slowed me down it didn't dampen the fun.
About midnight the sky quality worsened, the dew came heavy, and everyone else packed up and left. It was a pretty quiet night - everyone was friendly, but pretty focused on their own observing. I'm glad there were not a lot of visitors - I needed the time to get used to the scopes again.
It got down to 44F and my wife and friends needed to hit the sleeping bags. I stayed up long enough to see Saturn and Jupiter rise above the trees - even tho the seeing wasn't that great it was still a joy to see them again after such a long time (I will have to have someone help me collimate the 18" though ... :)
After waking and a hot cup of coffee we packed and headed down the hill for breakfast at Dona Esters in SJB. Can it get any better?
For those of you who may read this who haven't had your scopes out in a while I really encourage you to get out there. I kept thinking to myself 2 things Sunday night - " wow this is fun", and "how could I have stopped observing for 20 months?". If you have a passion for the skies - don't deny yourself - get out and enjoy.
As for me, I hope to take my own advice and will seen some of you again soon.
special note to Michelle: so sorry to read about the fire. I've kept up with your work on the observatory and your imaging. Thanks for your help in the past (yes the 18 obsession is killer)and I hope we'll meet up again soon.