by Jeff Crilly
The rangers came by around sunset to do one pass, and said they would not patrol the lot that night. They did ask if we had cell phones, and told us to call them should we encounter problems from "others". As it turned out, there were no intrusions, not even from non-human wildlife.
I setup the FSQ/G11 for some film work, and also the 15" dob for visual use while waiting for the long exposures.
Once darkness came, we were greated by that not-familiar-enough "sugary" milky way. The temperature was still balmy, though by 11pm I found shorts a bit cool and added ski bibs.
The wind was non-existent, and dew was minimal, only affecting (as usual) the black observers chair seat.
The sky was good.. I've seen LSA better -- transaparancy was nearly tops; the seeing was just a tad bit on the soft side. I did not do much seeing evaluation, but stuff down low (e.g. m51) was somewhat soft.. however above 30 degrees or so seemed quite good.
We looked at some brighter stuff, e.g. m17 with the oIII and it looked as good as I've ever seen. I spent a fair amount of the early morning hours poking around in draco, as that constellation does not fair well here in the south bay with light pollution to the north. Its a good thing I brought the 15.. it can get quite boring waiting for those long film exposure!
Around 4am with the pleides quite high in the east, I nodded off... and awoke to a brightening sky at about 5am, with Orion cresting the eastern horizon. I stowed some gear, and climbed into the truck for some shuteye. Around 8am I awoke to a pleasent low cloud cover, blocking out the ever intense LSA sunshine. By 9am the low clouds had dispersed, and I was packed and on the road.
At $22/night, LSA is a bit steep, but possibly worth it (and the 5-6 hour roundtrip drive).
Posted on sf-bay-tac Aug 15, 2004 21:36:03 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 08, 2005 12:10:22 PT