Just back from Monte Bello 9/9

by Michael Swartz

As I left home, hitched up my astro-trailer and headed for MB I looked at the sky and thought to myself that I was about to get shut out. So I quickly launched the internet browser on my Nextel and checked the TAC list to see if there were any comments about the weather tonight. There was one from Richard saying he was going. So I figured that Richard must know something... and I continued towards the Dumbarton bridge. It still looked bad. And now I could see fog laying over the mountain tops. I had my wife check TAC and look at the clear sky clocks... it looked bad.. but I continued on. After crossing the bridge I continued towards the mountain. I could see heavy fog and cloud cover but it looked like it stopped just north of the page mill road. So I thought well maybe we'll get lucky. As I continued on up the hill I noticed a SUV behind me pulling a trailer. The driver looked suspiciously like Richard. As I turned into the MB lot I noticed that this stranger who had been tailing me up most of the hill followed me into the lot. It was indeed the famous Richard Crisp. I got out, looked around and saw fog moving through a ravine south of the parking lot and no sign of fog to the north. In fact, horizon to horizon there was no sign of even a small cloud. It was clear, calm and looking good.

Richard and I exchanged greetings and amusements about how we figured the other must know something so we came in spite of bad looking skies. We were greeted there by new TACo Andrew who brought a nice refractor up. Later Sarah joined us. With my young son Michael Jr. we had a contingent of 5.

Everyone set up their observing equipment and waited for darkness to come. And we were not disappointed. Richard did some great equipment testing and imaging. It was fun to watch him capture images on the screen of his computer. And while his equipment was busy doing it's magic he milled around and socialized occasionally stopping by to have a look through my Plettstone 18.

I looked around at some of my summer favorites, m57, m27, m2, m3, m4, m5, Jupiter, alberio, etc.. before the moon rose. Then after a good part of the dark sky vanished due to the brightness of the moon I got out my moon book and proceeded to see if I could figure out the lunar geography.

I had never really just sat and explored the moon with a map. But tonight I was able to easily get myself oriented to the lunar surface relative to the picture in the book and identify mountains, valleys, lunar seas, craters, etc.. it was very interesting to compare the picture to the actual view. I really had a nice time just exploring it. I think it is the first time I have ever really "seen" the moon.

Later I looked at m57 and m27 with a Lumicon UHC filter and even in the brightly lit sky I was still able to pull out a lot of detail on those nebula. M2 and the double cluster looked really nice as well.

The around midnight Richard's generator ran out of gas and we all packed up and began heading out.

Still no clouds, no fog and only a little bit of dew. Not too cold, no wind and only a few signs of distant coyotes. It was a really nice, quiet night highlighted by some friendly conversation and a very enjoyable sky.

Michael Swartz