Dino Point, 1st Class Site

by Denny Woolaghan


Present at Dinosaur Point last night were Jim Turley, Jon Ruyle and myself.

What a beautiful night!! The sky was crystaline without any star twinkling with a minor low level light dome over the dam, East, towards Los Banos. Viewing towards the Coma Berenices area was extremely steady and dark. Temperatures never got below 50 degress and Jim reported the humidity around 70%.

There was a more than usual breeze, but with my usual winter wraps I was very comfortable. It was, however, the first time we could hear the wind turbines moving and the splashing sound of small waves hitting the shore lines.

All of us were logging galaxy after galaxy. I was able to log over 30 galaxies along with 30 or more clusters. In my many nights observing at Dino this one has to be rated as one of the best. It certainly provided me with my best views of all the M90+ objects. Jim even provided a fantasic view, in his "31mm Terma-Nagler", of a three galaxy view.

All three of us the entire evening were ooing and aawing and sharing the views in each others scopes. In my opinion Dino Point is a real 1st class site.