Me and my scope at Rio Del Mar

Greg LaFlamme

Saturday night I had made plans with Steve Gottlieb to try out a new observing location on some BLM land out by Mercy Hot Springs but considering the weather and the long drive, we decided to stay local. I believe he went to Lake Sonoma and hopefully had a great night. I was in Aptos for the weekend and thought I'd give Fremont peak a try. I haven't been to the pads in at least three years so I shook down Jamie Dillon and Peter Natscher for the skinny. Just about the time Jamie loaded me with info, I changed my mind.. fickle me.. For a moment I was considering contacting John Pierce about Bonny doon but the weather reports convinced me to stay at the beach house. I set up my 15" out back and waited for dark. Around 18:00 the sky appeared very dark but there was still a "film" of cirrus overhead blocking the dimmer stars from my naked eyesight (I was not naked, my eyes were). It was windy too. Eight mph gusts according to my little Kestrel meter. By 22:00, the sky got really clear, couldn't believe it! The mirrors were cool so I quickly collimated and got to work. SQM reached 20.20 (about like MB on a good night) I was in business:-) The wind blew right though my Albert scope and barley effected my views. The scope remained very stable considering the wind and the magnification held up to 212X ( 9mm Nag) for most of the night. I started at Orion and worked my way East towards and through Leo. Bagged around 50 objects last night under clear, steady skys and I think I cleared two pages out of my Pocket sky atlas:-) I used a combination of Sky commander and star hops to move through Leo and that proved to be the fastest way to go. Star hopping is neat because you can pick off many doubles and even a few carbon stars on the way to your next target. I dropped down to the horizon searching for Omega Cen but by 01:30 the sky got messy and the vodka I had earlier made me sleepy:-) I had no idea the sky was going to be so fruitful. I was productive and had some great views as well. I hope you all had nice nights too. Guess I made a good choice just staying here. GML