by Stacy Jo McDermott
The drive up was easy, however the traffic on 101N was a bit annoying.Had the traffic flow been lighter, it would be an easy 60-75 minute drive from Pacifica.
Lake Sonoma has numerous areas in which to set up one's telescope. Most astronomers use Lone Flat or Grey Pine - both of which have great horizons. Since I was with a group, we stayed in the group site. It too, had decent horizons and I didn't notice too much of the Santa Rosa light dome to the south.
Darkness fell and I was pleasantly surprised at how dark our area got and how much the Milky Way popped out...almost as good as Shingletown! (I kid you not). The Andromeda Galaxy was easy nekked eye and the Double Clusters in Cassiopeia was easily seen as well. Around 3 AM, I turned in with the intent of waking up 2 hours later to observe the "New moon in the old moon's arms". I did get up at 5 AM, but there were enough high cirrus clouds to make observing the moon at this stage un-feasible. So, I'll work on it next month.
Overall, Lake Sonoma is a great place, easy to get to, astronomy friendly has the requirements of a great sky. I found that even though the group camping sites run $40 a night, it's well worth it (plus, get a couple of people, divvy up the fee and it's a nice way to spend the evening without having to sleep in your car!). It gets 2 thumbs up from me.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Aug 16, 2004 10:53:00 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 08, 2005 12:14:05 PT