FP OR - Friday - Saturday

by John Gleason

Friday night at the Peak was triple Max excellent. The dense fog layer was a good 1000 ft below the Peak in all directions. Light domes were absent. Seeing very good for about 3 hours, but transparency was as good as it gets for a location surrounded by cities. All of the observing pads spoken for, good group of folk running the 30". Temps 60-degrees, 38% RH, Wind 0.

Highlights:

Thin crescent Moon with Mercury close by at greatest elongation
Saturn as seen through a C14. You could drive a freight train through the Cassini gap. Subtle structure between the polar and equatorial regions on the ball of the planet.
Comet Machholz above Polaris - bright, diffuse coma. Hint of ion tail.
M51 through a C14 at 100X - well defined spiral arms - nice!
Omega Cen through a C14 at 100x, then later through the 30"
Summer Milky Way at 3am - bright star clouds and well defined dark lanes. Dawn came too quickly.

Saturday Night:

I perfected a new setup technique: "Drip Alignment"

Posted on sf-bay-tac Mar 14, 2005 12:10:35 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 14, 2005 19:28:54 PT