Marek Cichanski
I had a lot of fun at Montebello on Friday and Saturday nights. It was cloudy at times, the transparency was off at times, it was windy at times, but I still enjoyed myself immensely. Why? Because of something that I might call the Field Work Fun Principle. It all started when I was a graduate student, doing geologic mapping in a mountain range near Death Valley. I had a blast working on my dissertation project, because it involved hiking up and down the flanks of a big, beautiful mountain range. Tons of fun. Some days, though, there might be something or another that made it not so fun. On these days, I didn't have to sweat the lack of fun, because it wasn't SUPPOSED to be fun. I could tell myself "I'm here to get this area mapped, and to collect samples and data, not to have a vacation". Then, when the good times came back - great views, feeling good while hiking uphill, etc - it was like gravy. Having a mountain adventure as one's field work was like "Fun Insurance". I never had that frustrated, guilty feeling that one gets when a vacation isn't going as well as one would like.Friday and Saturday nights' observing session was like that. I was 'doing field work' for my Swinburne projects, and so all I cared about was getting the data. I just needed to measure the position angles and separations of some double stars, measure the lengths of some lunar shadows, and calibrate the measuring scale in the reticle eyepiece. Any fun I had was gravy.
Fortunately, I got the necessary data, using my 6" f/10 Intes-Micro Mak-Cass, an Orion 'Sirus' mount, and a 12mm Celestron illuminated measuring-reticle eyepiece that I borrowed from David Kingsley. Bing, bang, boom, data in the logbook. Done and done. I was pleased at how smoothly it all went. Most of all, I was glad that the seeing was generally good enough to see diffraction patterns, split double stars, and see the tips of lunar mountain shadows.
And beyond that, the fun was all gravy. I had fun hanging out with James Turley and a newcomer named Rick on Friday night, and with Dan Wright on Saturday night. Dan found some interesting tumbling geosats, and we enjoyed some nice views of Jupiter. I think the only DSO I looked at both nights was the Double Cluster. And I had a great time. Didn't need a good sky, just a 'good enough' sky. Man, that was liberating!
To top it off, Saturday night was a glorious 'Black Cloud Night'. A thick blanket of marine-layer cloud covered the lights of the Bay Area, while Montebello was bathed in still, dry air... under a bright moon, with some high cirrus cloud overhead :-P Still, it's always nice to see a BCN.
Marek
| Observing Reports | Observing Sites | GSSP
2010, July 10 - 14 Frosty Acres Ranch Adin, CA OMG! Its full of stars. Golden State Star Party |
|
Mailing List Archives |
Current Observing Intents Click here for more details. |
||||
|
|