Met up with Jane and Jay Critchfield at We Toss 'Em They're Awesome
in San Juan Bautista, then caravanned up to the Peak. We met Peter
Natscher on Ranger Row, who was just about to bail, an hour before
sunset. Peter stuck around and we gave Jane and Jay the cook's tour.
Coulter, Sunset lot, SW lot, trailhead to the Peak. The fog was
billowing in. They got to see the 30" and peek over the rail at the
evening slide show at the Observatory. A Scout troop was coming into
the building just as we were leaving, and they were a troop I know.
There were some moments of ravishingly dark sky. Showed Jay M13 naked
eye. Cepheus and points north were crowded with stars on occasion.
There was one cool moment when we were standing on the pads, and the
fog was on a level reaching from the skirts of the Peak across the
distance to right where we were. Our heads were in the clear and our
feet were just inside the top of the cloud. Just down the road a few
meters, it was socked in. Very cool effect.
By just after 9 we were rolling. Never unpacked any gear. We had fun though.
3 announcements -
Pizza Factory in SJB is no good anymore. Mike who used to run the
place retired. The new franchisees don't know how to make pizza.
Felipe's in town is where the locals go to eat, and Dona Esther's,
and Jardines de San Juan, are good as ever.
Did meet up with the new weekend ranger, Derek Davis, good guy,
serious scifi fan. Sheryl is working weekdays. Derek's e-mail address
is
Working on updating the TAC Sites webpage. First the www page shows
the change, then when it refreshes, it reverts. Sucker. Will post
when it's fixed.
Next Saturday, as noted earlier, Troop 60 is camping at Doe Flat,
just behind the Observatory. Last time we did this was 4 years ago.
The Peak was crowded with scopes that night, all over the park. At
this point there's one lone OI on the page for the Peak that night
.