by Rich Neuschaefer
Saturday night (4/20) the PAS had a star party at Foothill College in the parking lot west of the observatory. At sunset the wind was blowing and high clouds were making seeing the moon difficult.
About a half hour after sunset the clouds started thinning out. The seeing was poor, about a 4 if 10 is best. As the evening went on the seeing got quite a bit better, maybe 7.5. We could see most of Hadley's Rill. Rimma Bert was easy to see. I could see both components of Iota Leonis but the image was not as clean as is was on Friday from Houge Park.
It was a fun at Foothill College. It wasn't a large crowd, as many people with scopes as there were visitors. William Phelps attached a video to a special eyepiece. In his AP 180EDT the camera was giving very nice views of Hadley's Rill, when the seeing would snap in.
By 10:30 pm clouds came over us again. A sign to pack up and go home.
I hope the college will give the PAS some control of the lighting around the observatory. The college has been developing the area next to the observatory (northeast). They have installed quite a few new bright lights around the observatory. It would wonderful if the PAS could also turn out the lights in the large parking lot west of the observatory.
P.S. It would be wonderful if they also could turn out the lights in the large parking lot west of the observatory.