It was a fine night at Dino Point. The evening got progressively wetter until I had to turn on my dew heater about 11:30 or so. Before that, it was obviously going to dew sometime but a simple dew shield kept it off my C11. Having an early appointment this morning, I left about 1:30 or so and there were only about 3 or 4 cars left.
The views were crisp, Jupiter showing most of what it had, all 6 stars in the trap showing in many scopes. I spent most of my time admiring M42, and the planets since it was the best seeing I have had this year so far. I did foray over to M36 & 7 since Richard was imaging them and looked around for NGC2022 (found it) and NGC 2024 (only after seeing it in Jims new 15 inch). As far as I am concerned, the location is a real winner. Nice flat paved area, nice portapottys. And, interestingly enough, virtually no wind. I note that because the report from Coe mentioned wind.
The other thing in its favor for some folks is that the entire way is easy driving as long as you ignore the perpetual traffic jams on 152 over Pacheco Pass.
Incidentally, on the way back this morning about 1:45am a traffic accident occurred in front of me. Someone tried to pass either a truck or line of cars behind the truck and collided with an oncoming car. It was a sideswipe so they didnt hit head on. I was just a little too far back to get the details but saw the shower of sparks. This is the 2 lane section on the way to Gilroy. It is all double striped and the truck was traveling about 52 (55 mph speed limit). I mention this just to remind everyone how bad that section is.
I stopped but there were others that were closer and while there was some injuries, it didnt look real bad (but I dont know).
I took a bunch of pictures with the Casio but havent reviewed them yet. Both piggyback and through the C11. If you all dont hear about them again, they werent worth mentioning. :-/
Nice night, great company!!!