May 15, 2010: Dinosaur Point

Jeffrey Weiss

For probably the season's last session at Dino, Carl, Miyaki and Hiroshi and myself enjoyed fair conditions, a bit mushy, with anomolously little coyote noise but the winds that were predicted to decrease around 2100, never did. Phoning the Dino wind measurement number, they averaged 11-13mph with gusts to 18mph (or higher) throughout. I was surprised that my new SXD imaging setup held up quite well (my Meade setup would have died at 10mph) and the only subs I lost were late in the session when I kicked the tripod. I ended up with 4 hours of good subs on M106 when I left at 0215 so I was happy, although next time I'll keep on driving to D.A.R.C. as this is probably it for Dino this season. Of course, just I left the sky darkened considerably and the Milky Way was beautiful, as Hiroshi continued to image it with his DLSR. That probably was due to the low altitude stuff shielding the South County light plume that I encountered driving back home.