by Jeff Crilly
I can comment briefly on conditions last night [at coe]. I arrived about 9:45 pm to find a completely empty parking lot. Temps were about 60 degrees with humidity in the 30s. Skies were clear above, with some low haze in the valleys to mildly subdue but not eliminate lights. The big problem of the night was a steady persistent breeze from the west. It never really gusted, just blew steadily and incessantly along at probably 10 to 20 miles per hour and never let up.
This was similar to the situation at the peak.
I setup near the observatory on the lee side. I didnt really get good blockage, but it was a bit more protected than the two fellows that were setup a few pads down.
I was surprised to see how empty the peak was... the campground was reported to be half full (about 12 sites). Ron was running the public night on the 30" and had about 10 visitors or so. There were two other folks setup at the pads, and another imager down at the shop. When I left sunday morning there were a few SCTs up on coulter and at the overlook. The SW lot was empty when I arrived around 7:30pm, but the gate was closed in the morning and I was too lazy to get out of the car to open it.
I shoulda setup by the shop, but I gambled the wind would die down. After the public program (about midnight), I moved the truck to block wind. It helped a little. The area around the shop was dead quiet.
A fair bit of fog rolled in... horizons to the south were good. The temps were ok.. not too cold.
I was really surprised to see it so empty on a 1 qtr early moonset.