April 22, 2009: Montebello OSP

Tony Hurtado

Just a really brief OR here to acknowledge that quite a number of us were up at Montebello OSP last night. I didn't count scopes, but it seemed to me there were probably around 10-12 there. Just before sunset the ranger came by to say that just a couple of miles away the fog was already creeping over the hills and it was quite cold. When I arrived at ~7:30pm there was a light breeze with minor gusting which was never really that annoying until later on just before packing up. It was cool but not cold (a nice counter to the heat of the last few days). The sky was mostly clear with an occasional passing cloudy region or even the passing wisp of fog.

There was a large group of people that I later learned were environmental law students (?) up to take in some astronomical views. I saw that posted in one of the OIs, and there was a pretty large turnout of these folks - maybe ~15 or so. They all departed by ~9:45pm or thereabouts and the parking lot became a bit quieter with just the astronomers left, obviously concentrating on their targets. The sky remained quite decent in most directions with the obvious exception of east which was lit up with the obvious sodium orange tinge from the Greater Bay Area.

And then the fog started rolling into the low lying valleys. For a while there it got really dark. Thinking we were in for one of those optimal Montebello nights I continued my final push for faint fuzzies in the last 60 of the Herschel 400 objects I've been chasing the past couple of years (done by the end of this Spring, I promise). By now the wind had picked up to the point it became annoying, and it wasn't long after that that the parking lot was engulfed by that same fog. By 10:30pm it was over and done. Rogelio was the last one out to lock the gate. We had a good couple of hours while it lasted - just right for a "school" night.

-Tony