Willow Springs Sunday 24 August

Bob Ayers

I observed from my site at 3000 feet in the Diablo Range until about moonrise.

I experienced a return to the conditions of the summers of 2006 and much of 2007, without the haze and smoke that interfered earlier this summer.

It was clear and warm. (The temperature at my site was 72F at midnight.) There was a strong breeze from the NE that would occasionally have bothered dob owners. No dew at all.

I was mostly observing at low-powers, but one view of Jupiter showed me steady skies.

The sky brightness was only so-so for the site. My SQM was reading about 21.45 and the Milky Way was a bit subdued. Looking around the horizon, it appeared that illumination from Salinas and the Gonzales/Soledad area was stronger than usual, perhaps due to a marine high-cloud layer over that way.

In addition to my usual ad-hoc wanderings and eye-candy, I sketched three nebular targets on the galactic equator near M7 with my eight-inch RFT and filters: Sh2-13, 6357, and 6334. I really like the star-pattern at 6357, aka the "las cuatros Juanitas"

Bob Ayers