Despite a first quarter moon, the sky was dark and very transparent when I got to the Esparto site at about 8:15 p.m. But the stars were twinkling like mad. The temperature was very pleasant as I proceeded to assemble my 18" truss dob. This was probably the first time I've had to do it in the dark (OK, there was moonlight), and somehow it took even longer than usual. When Jerry, another Davis SVAS member arrived with his wife, at about 8:45, I was still not done. They had some paperwork to do, however, and I finally got it all together a bit after 9. That's when Gregg arrived, with his 25". While he was assembling his dob, I began looking at the planets, which did not reveal sharp images, partly due to turbulence, partly because my mirror was not yet at equilibrium. The property owners and some guests arrived, and soon there were repeated exclamations of "Oh my god" as the group viewed Jupiter, SAturn, M57, M15, the Veil, the Pleiades, and yes, the moon through my 18". I put a Skyglow filter in my 11mm Russ.
By this time, the temperature began to cool, and the moon was close to setting; Gregg's telescope was assembled, and he commenced to view more showpeice objects. Soon, some folks went in, the moon set, and the turbulence decreased considerably as the temperature fell to the mid forties. There was a slight breeze.
The Milky Way was now visible, though not as bright as the average BC incarnation. But visibility at the zenigh was outstanding. Some folks came out again, and alternated between Gregg's telescope and mine. We had some excellent views of M31, M32 and M110 nearly overhead, as well as the Great Nebula in Orion, but everyone besides Gregg and I soon left or went to sleep.
I viewed the galaxy cluster just west of Algol; four galaxies were visible directly, another four with averted vision. At BC, 7 are often visible directly. I viewed NGC286 in Casseopeia and several galaxies in Eridanus, followed by M81 and M82, M108 and the Owl Nebula. These were fairly low in the sky, but the seeing was excellent despite the amount of light (not direct light, just light pollution I guess). By this time Sarurn was at the zenith, and I had an outstanding view at 416x, with my Speers-Waler 5-8mm zoom at 5 mm (actually, 4.7). The crepe ring was cleraly visible against the planet, and Encke's division was visible intermittently. It was the best view of Saturn I've had this year.
Gregg, among other objects, looked at the Blue Snowball at high power - 500x - and verified that it is, in fact, a blue "ring nebula". He also viewed the Flaming Star Nebula and the Eskimo nebula, among many other objects, especially open clusters. The Eskimo Nebula clearly shows the central star, and is IMHO, much better than the Catseye. We also viewed the Horsehead thru Gregg's telescope, using my H-Beta filter. We viewed M42 repeatedly using different filters, and noticed that different parts of the nebula were visible with different filters. Unfiltered, we could see the reddish color of parts of M42, in contrast to the blue tint of other parts.
We began to pack up at 2 a.m. - after all, this was an unscheduled outing on the spur of the moment, but what a wonderful way to make up for the two recent disappointments at BC.
I's say the skies were at least 6.0 at the zenith, to 5.5 over much of the rest of the sky. The south, below 40 degrees (apparent) is pretty useless, as is the east (except for bright objects). There were no clouds at all, and transparency was excellent.
Here's to clear, dark, calm skies for us all!