by Jane Smith
My first trip to Fremont Peak was full of surprises.
After a **superb** dining experience at TAC co-potentate Jamie Dillon's house, I headed north on Hwy.101 close on the bumper of Jim Everitt. Since Jamie had kindly offered to lag behind to help Jo with dishes, it was left to Jim to lead the way and guide me up the mountain. Many thanks, Jim!
According to plan, the marine layer began to arrive about 4pm, so all of us were tingling with anticipation at the prospects of a great night of observing at "the peak". The climb up the hill was a bit daunting, definitely not for the faint of heart. Do they actually drive RV's up that road?!? The narrow, hairpin turns make the trek to IHOP seem like a cakewalk in comparison. After several heart palpitations I finally made it to the top and found Jim, who had zoomed on ahead, waiting to show me where to deposit my $4.00. It was just my luck I only had three one-dollar bills in my wallet, so I had to resort to quarters for the 4th dollar. (Mental Note: Bring 4 one-dollar bills next time! The slot through which one must stuff the envelope isn't very quarter-friendly.) Once the fees were paid it was off to the SW Lot... up the road and around the corner.
On arrival we found Charlie Wicks, Richard Navarette, Mark Wagner, and fellow TAC-SACo Marsha Robinson already there and ready to go. Jim and I quickly started setting up. Jamie arrived soon thereafter. Later arrivals were Steve and Jean Sargeant, fresh off the John Muir Trail where they'd just hiked from Mt. Whitney to Tuolumne Meadows. Such a life!
The sight from the top of Fremont Peak was perfect, a white fluffy expanse of clouds that covered the entire valley. The astrogods had indeed been kind.
After our telescopes were collimated Marsha and Jim joined Jamie and I for the obligatory FP tour, Coulter Row and on to the FPOA observatory. Things looked strangely familiar as I approached Ranger Row, no doubt from having seen pictures of the area posted by JHJ several years ago. I recognized Jeff Crilly and Marek at the pads. After a look at the impressive behemoth 30" we headed back to the SW Lot. I remarked as we passed the empty Ranger accommodations how neat it would be if people could rent bedroom space for the night, or for the week... Fremont Peak's version of an astro B&B.
When we got back Polaris was out and waiting patiently for me to align my scope. My observing plan for the evening was to continue with the Eye Candy List (ECL) and occasionally join Mark and Richard on their galaxy trio hunt. I'd remembered to pack my laptop so I wouldn't need to mooch computer views off Mark, but alas, I discovered a piece of my power adapter hadn't got packed. This was disappointing. I'm pretty much toast on Mag 14-15 objects without a very detailed chart or a computer to show me the star field. GOTO is peachy for quickly getting in the neighborhood, but after that I need something more. SA2000 is pretty useless at that depth. (Another Mental Note: Always bring Uranometria!) Still, it could have been much worse. Forgetting a power cord is a far cry from forgetting truss poles, as *some* people have been known to do. So I limped along as best I could.
Skies were fantastic, far better than I've seen at Fiddletown on many nights. The marine layer blocked almost all offensive light from the valley and seeing was rock steady at 9/10. Star counts taken later in the evening by Mark "eagle eye" Wagner (21), Richard (14), and Jamie, Jim, and me (12) indicated the sky was a very respectable 6.5, far better than I thought I would see at Fremont Peak. No wonder everyone starts salivating when there's talk of a marine layer! Temperatures were in the balmy low 70's all evening.
I was able to get a nice chunk of the ECL finished, working mostly in CAM, CAS, AQL, PEG, and PER. All in all a very productive night. Observing trips don't get any better than this one, except for the missing power cord. Twas a beautiful site, superior skies, great friends, and yummie astro-munchies (Jamie's lemon cookies, Mark's sushi and coffee, Richard's wine) . I had a wonderful time. My sincere thanks to my good friend and host, Jamie Dillon. A breakfast ala local Mexican cuisine and a tour of the beautiful San Juan Bautista Mission topped off an already memorable first trip to Fremont Peak. Highly Recommended!
Posted on tac-sac Sep 13, 2004 14:55:16 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 09, 2005 16:10:37 PT