Fremont Peak 7/10/2004

by Richard Crisp

• The sky conditions were excellent. Very steady, transparent and dark skies.

• Not much wind, should have set up at the Pads instead of by the "imager's ghetto" by the restrooms/workshop because:
  1. Too many people walking by with flashlights (campers going to the observatory that haven't a clue what it means to be doing astrophotography/imaging and that they can actually see MORE by having dark adapted eyes

  2. Astronomers that tried to be considerate by parking between the workshop and the now-vacant ranger house: but failed to think that if they *BACKED* their car into the parking place before dark, that they can simply pull straight out thereby having no bright white backup lights switching on to spoil a 1 hour film shot 10 minutes before the exposure was due to end

  3. Rangerette using the workshop/office to write up a theft report: no curtains to block the light from the office emanating out of the uncovered windows: then leaving on the porch light on the other side of the house to keep the place nice and bright until dawn. Wouldn't want anyone to stumble in the dark or to have a nice dark sky to take film shots.

Lest we think that it was a terrible night it was very pleasant nonetheless despite these annoyances. Marek gets the "Gold Star" for the most astro-friendly drive off: James Turley got special bonus points for doing the same and friendly-locking the gate (only needed to click one digit one click to unlock the gate).

One surprise was the lack of the promised marine layer. It never appeared.

Now for the story of the theft:

Some poor camper fellow had brought his telescope with him thinking that FP seemed like a good place to use a telescope. I don't think he was a regular up there or even knew about the astro-activities up there. He decided to take a short hike up the hill adjacent to the SW Parking lot just before sunset. Unfortunately the hapless hiker failed to lock his car. When he returned his Meade ETX125 and accessories (he said $1500 worth of stuff) had been burgled from his car by one of FP's finest.

This of course necessitated a police report being written which is why the lights were on inside the office/workshop and precipitated the porchlight being accidently left on all night by the rangerette.

This is really too bad and I just hate hearing of this kind of incident out there. One of the things I really enjoy about being out on The Peak is the escape from the life of the city. But Noooooo, some dipsh&t has to spoil a good thing for all. Boy if I caught some creep doing that they'd probably find a body somewhere and it wouldn't be mine.... That's just totally unacceptable.

So be careful out there: the rangerette informed us that usually when some creep does this and makes a "score" they come back another day for more. This further re-inforces my conviction that being behind a locked gate makes all the sense.

Reports | About Reports | TAC | About TAC | Join TAC

Posted on sf-bay-tac Jul 11, 2004 14:52:22 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 03, 2005 19:14:20 PT