One of those perfect, magical nights

by James Adams

No one was going out to MB last night, and La Honda was fogged in, so I loaded up my brand-new [used, Astromart] GM-8 and 4" f 15 Vixen achro and drove up to Windy Hill. There's a little turnout about 1/4 mile south of W.H. where I've set up many times, and that's where I went.

It was one of those perfect, magical nights; the fog had rolled into The Flats [Silicon Valley] and was hanging several hundred feet below me out to the ocean, so there was no light pollution from the East! Just a taste of a warm breeze, enough to keep the mosquitos down, shirtsleeve weather!

Scorpio, Corona Australis, and LOTS of southern sky to the horizon. I was going nuts with my charts, there was so much to look at that I'd just stare for many minutes at some cluster or asterism, then go look it up on the charts to see what it was. Very little traffic, just the occasional Porsche doing 90 MPH, oblivious to the slow delights above.

Tried to split Antares, but no go. Maybe with an apo... I got home about 2:30 A.M., very happy. If I can get a nap, I'll be back tonight!