by Richard Crisp
I was there last night imaging. We had a good turnout. Imagers: Sterngold, Ayres, Crisp. Visuals: Turley, Neuschafer, Hirsch, Terzian, Chambers, Bob J, Guillermo, Peter Kao (welcome to TAC, Peter, don't forget to s-ubscribe to CalAstro too, so you get the full dose of what't happening) and I believe two others who's names I missed.
The evening started out with light westerly winds (est 5mph), and picked up during the evening. By the time I left at 1:30am, it was probaby 10mph or more and with gusts to perhaps 15mph. I'm only guessing the wind speeds.
Humidity got as high as 97% by about 7-7:30pm and dropped into the high 70s as the night progressed. Dewing was not a problem.
Temperatures got down to mid forties.
The seeing was very good at times. My best way to quantify was the sort of focus I was getting while imaging. I saw the tightest FWHM numbers I've ever seen since I began to measure them a couple of months ago. I was seeing numbers below 1 at best focus, sort of in the 0.75-0.9 range which worked out to be something in the 1.25arc second range. I call that good seeing.
I consulted my web page's jetstream map link when I returned home around
The sky was very dark to the south as is expected of MB. It was also very transparent. By midnight there were light high cloud patches off to the north and by 1am they were wisping past Orion occasionally affecting the work that Paul and I were doing.
The wind and humidity diminished the experience but not too much. I think that those that were there were awfully happy to have as good a night as we had especially after the last six weeks or so. In my case I shot the best Horsehead picture I've ever shot. It might even be my best shot to date, so I cannot complain about the weather too much. I would venture a guess that everyone that was there was very happy they went, we all had a blast.
I posted the link to the IC434 image on CalAstro in case anyone is interested in it.