Dinosaur Point

by Jamie Dillon

Several good things happened at Dinosaur Point last night. Two guys were there for the first time, Mark Brada and Tony Hurtado. With Crilly and me, that was the group. The zodiacal light was bright and remarkable, spiking 50 degrees up from the horizon thru Aries. On 19 January, Jardine and I had seen it aiming thru Mars. Sky's moved.

We had an excellent view of the Flame Nebula in Tony's also excellent scope. Good both with and without an Ultrablock. The filter did bring out details and show more of the tank tracks. And in all, we had two hours of a very decent dark sky. Jeff wasn't kidding, the winter Milky Way was wild, esp north of Orion and thru Perseus.

This was the first open TAC night at Dinosaur Point in just over 4 years. Once again, Albert Highe deserves credit for patience and good strategizing.

As to flying neighbors - Crilly -

The mosquitos at dino are like teenage girls at a Beatles concert. Rampant. I opened the car door this morning and a swarm flew out.

Marcus -

I don't remember bugs there. I guess it might have been better had it been windy. I think maybe I'm glad I didn't got to Dino.

Nor do I, ever. Good simile though, Jeff. Musta been cute girl Palo Alto mosquitoes. So Marcus can't sour grapes missing Dino.

Storming here, blowing well over 30 knots. Glad to have had those 2 hours of bright stars last night. Company was real fun as well.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 26, 2006 22:37:02 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 02, 2006 19:49:07 PT