by Matthew Buynoski
Conditions were both fantastic and not-so-good, all at the same time. We had nice warm no-jacket temperatures, an occasional very slight breeze, and not a hint of dew, but....they sky was unusually bright, even to the east. We suspected (having seen some cirrus in that direction before sunset) that there must have been moisture up high extending the light dome of the cities. It actually got brighter later; somewhat odd. You could see part of the Milky Way (up around the zenith), but it was lost near both horizons. Limiting Mag. to the north was not even 5.0, judging from the stars (or lack of them) visible in Ursa Minor.
No matter! We had a good time.
The key point of the evening was visitors...lots of them. We had a conjuction of two major groups. The park campgrounds had a "Tiger Scout" group, all of whom came up the hill to take a look. These are the smallest members of the Boy Scouts, being 6 and 7, and all came equipped with parents, for a group total of perhaps 30 or so. In addition, we had the American High School astronomy club from Fremont, another 10 (roughly). Interest levels were very high, and lines as deep as 10 to 15 for some of the items on display.
Not that many scopes. I brought the Vixen BT-80 for a change, and in addition we had a C11, a C8, a 6" dob, a couple of ETX's, and one or two others set up slightly apart...I didn't get over there to see what they were.
The observing was almost all standard items (M31, Mars, Saturn later, M13, M15, various OC's in Cassiopeia, Double Cluster, etc) coupled with informational talks for the mass of visitors.
I used the BT-80 in a different mode tonight. In the past, it has been a little frustrating to use at high power (120X-180X) because the object would often move out of the FOV (alt-az non-driven mount) before you could complete the eyepiece change. However, if one puts a high power eyepiece in one tube, and a wide angle in the other, you can not only keep track of where the object is, you can also show others both the object itself and the starfield it is in. This was a success, and appreciated not onlyby the public but by one neophyte astronomer as well when attempting star hops (I tried out the different-barrel trick this past summer with some moon observing as well, and it works well there too. One tube shows a close up of craters/mtns/whatever, while the other tube shows the whole moon).