Last night, Saturday, turned out to be a really fine observing event for me and over twenty others in the southwest parking lot. During my drive to the Peak at 6pm, I was concerned about the thick and high marine layer covering the entire coastal region and protruding through the pass into San Juan Bautista. I could not see the Peak as I turned off of 156 onto the way up the mountain. I was ready to detour north to Coe. But wait, the Peakm was where I wanted to go and I drove on. The drive up the mountain proved to be rewarding after punching through the fog half the way up and finding warmer and clear skies at 2,500 ft. After living for 2 days under solid marine fog in Monterey, I was overjoyed to be in the sun. Arriving at the SW parking lotby 6:30 pm, I found Suzanne and Derek already there. Derek brought his new 14" Teleport. What a transportable scope! I was expertly constructed of baltic birch and finished seemlessly with a nice gray finish. The collapsable trusses with a captive and "baffled" shroud makes setup in a few minutes. It even has a few fans to blow air in front of and across the primary along with a 12vdc output jack at the eyepiece for a secondary heater. Congratulations, Derek!
By 8 pm, there were another 20 happy observers parked and ready to go. The seeing turned out to be very good for me and my 10" Mak-Cass. The A-P 900GTO mount that carried it worked very well. It does support the Mak better than the Tak NJP did. The vibration dampening time, at the eyepiece at 370X is only 2 seconds with the A-P 900 mount as compared to about 4 seconds with the NJP. I have the A-P Mak counter-balanced with 3 x 18lbs. weights.
By 9 pm, I was splitting Antares very easily to give proof of the good seeing we had. I used 370X with a 10mm Zeiss Abbe Ortho. Next was Mars. Mar showed a sharp disk at 370X, using thhe 10mm Abbe and a Baader Lunar/Planetary filter. This filter has become my favorite planeteray filter. It's light violet in color and cuts the glare and haze and filters in neutral light. I generally don't like deeply colored filters. I like to see the planet in full spectrum, natural light. Mars showed very subtile markings not like the more pronounced featured I saw a few weeks ago. I guess the dust stiorm is hiding things. The south polar cap was prominent but I saw no north polar cap last night.
I am continually being amazed about the 10" Mak's nice dark field, of view and very refractor-like star sizes. It certainly performes like a larger scope by having these qualities.
I had to leave by midnight so that I could start Sunday early. By midnight, I was getting very damp. My table and atlases were soaked. The fog was approaching the parking lot sharing its high humidity with everyone. But, the sky was very dark since all cities below were covered completely around the Peak. The Milky Way showed much dark veining. What a night!