by John Gleason
The smoke cloud from Fort Ord moved quickly southeast. All that remained were a few high thin clouds that eventually departed by 10pm. Overall the transparency was poor, with the sky sporting a milky appearance with ill defined Milky Way through Cygnus.
After 1am, I would say that transparency got considerably better, but the seeing was soft. Smoke from the fire pushed way SE. Milky Way through Orion and down south looked pretty good but the sky was still very bright and low contrast.
Off-shore conditions prevailed all night. Slight breeze with the occasional warm breath made for a pleasant evening. Only one other observer up near the observatory.
Boy Scouts tonight. They were already coming up the road at 9:30 am.
So help me understand this. We have been warned of Red Flag fire danger conditions all week and they (Monterey County?) decides to do a controlled burn on Fort Ord? It got out of control quickly from 500 acres to 4500 and still burning.