RTMC 2006 - Minor OR

by Jeff Gortatowsky

Well it cost me an eyepiece to go... but I had a great time as usual. Thursday night was quite nippy but the only really usable observing night. I knocked off a 6 or 7 Herschel galaxies in URSA Major and called it a night. Had I known what was to come, I would have kept going! Friday night the winds came, sometimes fierce. As fierce as I have ever seen up there and I've been going for 9 years. No observing Friday night. But drinking was possible! ;) Saturday night the wind had abated 'some' but it was cold! Sub-freezing. Charlie Wicks of San Jose, Eric Shrader of (somewhere near Sacramento?), and I braved the cold until midnight to observe with Charlie's Merit Award winning six inch f/15 refractor. Congrats to Charlie for his third or fourth merit award! Sunday night was calm and still quite cool, but they was a high haze that limited it's usefulness. Still I knocked off 3 or 4 more H400 objects before breaking down the 18 inch litebox.

Some other highlights... an AMAZING bolide that slow fizzed it's way from the southeast to the northwest Friday night. This one was slow and long enough that when Charlie Wicks shout out "Oh my God look!!!! You had plenty of time to look up and see it!! Drinking Stone Brewing beer (wonderful!) with Tim Parker, a JPL geologist on the rover team. Hanging with Jean Muller of Palomar Observatory as we collected door prizes. Find out Bob Summerfield likes cats as much as I do. Getting a picture of Bob kissing the foot of the Astro Wizard to make the wind go away - it worked, but the haze came instead.

All in all, the weather at night was less than nomimal, but the company, friends, brew, and 'stuff' was wonderful and as usual I had a fantastic time.

My understanding was many of the vendors had an excellent RTMC. I also heard the new Meade 20 inch RC(ish) was less than 'nominal' in the mechanical/software department.

Vic Marris is really making some killer APOs now if you are so inclined.

Posted on sf-bay-tac May 30, 2006 13:40:52 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Jul 19, 2006 11:48:29 PT

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