Willow Springs. Wow!

by Darrell Lee

Willow Springs is about a 2-1/2 hour drive from Benicia (v. 2 hours to IHOP). At about 3000' elevation, it's a viable alternative for Dennis and me at all times of the year, but especially when IHOP is closed by snow. Sky conditions are comparable to IHOP, even comparable to Shingletown and Lassen, with dark horizons in most directions with the exceptions of the north (San Jose) and southeast (Monterey). NELM was ~6.5. The owner said it's darker in the fall and winter when the agricultural dust settles. Unfortunately for winter observing, the road to Willow Springs can be iffy when it's wet.

There was a sizeable crowd there. Dennis and I recognized Steve Gottlieb, Rob Hawley, Albert Highe, Mark Wagner, and Charlie Wicks, among others. We met a few others; Jeff, Dick, Bob, Mike, Craig, and half a dozen others.

Dennis and I used Charlie's 10" travelscope, which stayed in collimation (unlike the Johnsonian pop-up scope Dennis rented for Costa Rica). We viewed a number of Messier objects, including M4, M22, M28, M6, M7, M8, M20, M11, M51, M101, M31/M32/NGC 205, a couple of the dim globulars near M8 (NGC 6544 and NGC 6553), some planetaries (the Blue Planetary, Cats Eye, and more. Steve Gottlieb and Mark Warner had AL 3, the newest discovered globular cluster, in their scopes and invited us to take a look. Charlie was finding a lot of objects in his 20" homebuilt, and invited us to look at several. The galaxy pair NGC 7332 and 7339 were really neat, as was edge-on NGC 5709. Dennis showed me barred spiral galaxy NGC 7479. We saw a lot more. Willow Springs impressed us with its darkness and convenient location.

Many thanks to Bob, the landowner, for offering the use of his propery, and offering it to SJAA. What a gem of a place!

Darrell Lee