by James Turley
| Date | Saturday, October 14, 2000, 1700 - 0030 PDT |
|---|---|
| Location | Montebello Ridge, CA 37.328ºN, 122.1966ºW UTM Zone 10, N 4131357, E 571177 +37º 19' 40.8" -122º 11' 47.76" Elevation 2300 feet http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37.328&lon=-122.1966&s=50&size=s |
| Equipment | VX114ED (4.5") 600mm f/5.26 Refractor, GP-DX Mount, SkySensor 2000-PC ROM 2.0, Sony VAIO PC-505 Notebook, TheSky V5.09. |
| Goals | Watch the moon and planets. Get away from the traffic. |
| Seeing Conditions | 98% waning moon. High clouds all night occluding over 70% of sky at times. Occasional "Glory Holes" of high clarity and steadiness. |
| Weather | 7PM 59 degrees, 60%, 12 midnight COLD 39 deg, 72%. Dew began to attack at the stroke of Midnight. |
Arrived at Sunset, watching high clouds turn golden. Hauled out my EOS 1V camera with 28-300mm Zoom and snapped some shots of the setting sun against a lone oak, silhouetted against a ridge of backlit golden grass. Nice.
Rich and Steve, then Phil show up. 70% clouds. No moon yet. North to Mt. Tam socked in with low lying fog. Who cares. Rich sets up his AP Stowaway, the cloud factor, I guess deciding against mounting his bigger glass.
Steve's new G11 gleamed black and beautiful in the rising Moonlight, casting a finely engineered shadow on his Astroturf. But...alas, the G11 was to remain rider less through out the night. Since the rings were not ready from Losmandy, Steve tried a wooden jury rig to fashion a dovetail out of wood, cardboard, sticks, and duct tape. We all tried to innovate some solution for him, but, in the end, he ended up mounting his Binos on the G11. Good tracking, Steve. A loony (or luney) sight to be sure.
Despite the cruddiess of the skies, we were treated to some fine views. Even a few DSO's. Some faint Planetaries in Lyra showed up. Swapping new EPs. Phil's scope was especially performing well, showing us a great Jupiter and the a transiting moon, shining white. Very very nice. Views looked like a good refractor. Phil taught me the basics of perfect SCT collimation. Thanks!
Had fun pumping up my VX114ED 600 f5.3 on Plato. Go to about 480x with Vixen 2.3mm Lanthanum, 4x Powermated (Rich's)! Dim and unsteady, of course. We needed Steve Caron's Naked Jupiter Moon eyes to focus for us. However, 2.3mm EP with Phill's Klee 2.3 (?) Barlow looked great! Picked out lots of good detail. Good combo. We are getting 75x to 80x per inch out of the ED glass.
Even tried some 1200x stuff on Phil's 11. Would like to see. Let's try that on a night of good seeing :-)
Robert Garfinkle had suggested a Violet 47 Filter to bring out the rays of the moon. Wow...what a view. Reminded us all of a Haight Ashbury poster shop in Black Light. (I was there). Rays did stand out nicely, almost floating above the moon's surface. A nice Lucy in the Sky with Diamond's experience. A Purple Sunsets on the terminator...Purple Haze....
We all immensely enjoyed the Sunset over the central mount (1000m) of Petavius through the Stowaway. Shadow casting on the 2000 meter walls. Watching the shadow move higher up the walls. Could not see the little Rimae within the crater.
Rich brings out his exotic glass. Zeiss EP's, Radian 7mm... fantastic planetary EP. A Brandon view of Saturn. Creamy silky moon views through his Stowaway. I love it. Cost as much as my 4.5".
Some visitors about midnight. Young college kids, blown away at finding us up here...stunned at the fine views of Jupiter and transiting Io (?). Smart kids, with intelligent questions, and the proper attitude of excitement and wonder at what we had to show them.
Very cold. I can hear Phil's hair dryer.
2AM, we pack up together, since Phil's Oreos are almost all gone. I'm last out. Fog starts to move in about 1000' elevation. Follow Rich's Yukon 280 south.
I learned you can have a good time, even if the clouds are spoiling the seeing. Good company, under cloudy starry skies and shadows cast by a Purple Moon, can be rewarding indeed.