by Richard Ozer
There's a certain rhythm to observing that is dirupted by month after month of cloudy weather. I decided that altitude was the key factor in observing last night and chose to go up to Mt. Diablo. The decision was a good one. Nonetheless, I left my meticulously prepared observing list on top of my printer at home and my battery (for running the laptop and fan) hooked up to the charger in my garage.
So, I spent the night looking at Jupiter which put on a great show with IO casting its shadow and then popping off Jupiter's limb like a glowing celestial pimple.
Other targets were the usual fare from memory... the Orion nebula, the Eskimo nebula, Andromeda, M33, M404, Saturn (of course), M1, Castor, the open clusters in Auriga and a final peek at Mars.
Like Fremont peak, the seeing was steady until later in the evening when the wind picked up.
The fog covered all of the city lights and the Mountain was memorably dark. Hopefully next time I won't be so forgetful...