Peter Natscher
There were over 25 of us down at DARC last night observing all kinds of celestial objects in a dark sky after the cloudiness disappeared at 11:00pm. What a party we all had! Parts of the new observatory are still under construction -- it's two opposing large telescope domes and the surrounding landscape. It already has a beautiful fully functioning kitchen, bathrooms, and a central control & presentation room hosting a row of very large-screen LCDs. Buffet food and drinks were brought in for our pleasure and a fine presentation of current imaging projects was shown. After the dinner buffet and presentation, we all assembled outside to a clearing sky at 10pm. The weather improved and the sky turned sugary by midnight. The seeing remained fine enough for me to enjoy great detail in many Arp galaxies and Hickson groups, too. I've never seen so many spiral arms in M101 so well as I did last night with my 24 in. Starmaster. DARC has great horizons all around and a nearly sea level S. horizon, so Omega Centauri was observed for quite a while before ,during, and after transit at 2am. All of us were impressed with our first visit to the DARC facility created by Dr. Lee Hoglan and Dr. Caitlan of Modesto. We thank them very much for the invitation and can't wait to return next month.Peter Natscher in Monterey
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2010, July 10 - 14 Frosty Acres Ranch Adin, CA OMG! Its full of stars. Golden State Star Party |
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