by Jane E. Smith
How good was it last night at Fiddletown?
It was great! Skies were clear, fairly transparent, and reasonably steady.
It was warmer than anticipated with lows around the mid 40's, with only a very slight breeze around midnight. There was a good crowd which resulted in my being relegated to the "back of the bus" for setup location. Right next to the observatory leaves something to be desired where the western sky was concerned, but I was no worse for the wear as I had a great view of the eastern and southern horizons.
Most of my evening was spend around Corvus and southern Virgo, then off to several planetaries in Cygnus, and finally to various assorted tidbits on the "eye-candy" menu a la Messier.
Randy managed once again to ferret out Omega Centaurui along the tree line which gave us (Gary, Randy and I) a nice glimpse of the grand globular through my 10x50 binocs.
Albert, from the Bay Area, was there with his new, hand-crafted 12.5" f/5 dob. His clever design has resulted in a scope that weighs under 58 pounds total... a beautiful piece of work which delivers some stunning views.
Also in attendance were Gary Manning, Steve Gottlieb, Randy, Francis, and Bill, the newest TAC-SAC member. Also there were a number of friends from the Bay Area whose names my tired brain wasn't able to commit to memory. It had already been a long day and became a longer night, given my trip to the Napa Valley earlier, but it was well worth the hard drive home.
On the downside... we were not honored with an appearance of the Fiddletown Cat although I do think I caught a brief glimpse of him around 2:30am. On reflection, I've decided that cat has some admirable qualities. Given a half-eaten sandwich, he accepts it happily and never returns to whine that I've already a chunk of it... unlike others who shall remain unnamed. Ingratitude can be so unattractive!
I'm glad to hear you had good skies at Shingletown too. We thought of you and wondered how it was going.