I arrived about 5pm with some mist in the air. Not having been to the spot before, I could not really judge how bad it was from the daytime view, as I did not know the distances to the surrounding features. As we set up though, it got worse and worse, and the mist was added to by some light clouds. The planets seemed to be the targets of choice, but I had toys to play with and I proceeded to set up my deep sky CCD setup.
At about the time the 1st quarter moon set (about 9:45) though, things took a serious turn for the better. The mist dissipated and conditions improved and improved. By midnight the conditions were shockingly good - on par with several of the 2+ hour away observing sites I have been to. Others were estimating the limiting magnitude at 6.5+. I am no judge of this stuff, but there were a huge number of stars abound, and a very clear winter milkyway.
I managed to shoot quite a few objects on my image "wish list", with some good results, including reasonable shots of the bubble nebula, and IC443. Check out:
http://www.santangeli.net/Dino/latest.html
for some early results (feedback directly to peter@santangeli.net please!).
On my way home, the reason for the wonderful conditions became clear - fog, thick as pea soup, from Gilroy to Los Gatos (as far as I go). It was another one of those "only in the bay area, fog is my friend." nights.
Happy New Year Everyone!