On Mon, 12 Jul 2010, Jay Eads wrote:
In case anyone is interested. I'm heading out to Rush Valley tonight (Pit n Pole). I'll be there probably all night, sleeping the back of the Pathfinder and coming home in the morning. Clear Sky Clock shows very mild temperatures, winds gone by 9:00p.m. and good seeing with humidity staying around 45% until right before dawn when it spikes to 55%. If someone wants to come along, feel free to show up or if you want to follow me, respond by 6:00p.m. here as I'll be leaving soon after that.
Jay -- For Pit 'n' Pole, do you use the Camp Floyd CSC? Just curious. I have my favorites on my phone. I really like Knolls, actually. My Pit 'n' Pole experience has been very dirty and wet. I want to go somewhere tonight, but I probably can't leave until 9:00. Target is UMa Herschels. I had a couple of decent nights lately. I think that Kodachrome Basin State Park was a great place to observe. It's ever-so-slightly darker than Bryce. I set up at site 17 -- in a spot where the geology was not of any more affect than the vegetation. I cleared out all the Ophiucus and Sagittarius Herschels in about an hour. It was disorienting, though, one night later to be camping at Rockport and Cassiopaiea was already up at 10:00 -- the N, W, and E horizons at Kodachrome leave something to be desired. I am lackadaisically working on Caldwells as well. I'm absolutely stuck on the Bubble Nebula in Cass, the Cave by Cepheus, and the Crescent in Cygnus. I have tried with my 6" scope under as dark skies as one can hope for, with UHC and O-III filters, but can't claim victory on these. At Knolls, I don't have too much trouble with Herschels rated "2" (at Kodachrome, I could see "1"s) by O'Meara, but some stuff on the Caldwell list is rough. I know I'm pointed right at it, but I can't see it. Anyway, if I go to the pit tonight, I'll turn my headlights off. But it seems more likely that I'll go to Lakeside or Knoll. Or if I feel like sleeping, I'll go to Rockport. I can't extol Rockport enough. "My" spot is near the entry gate where there is a sign about fishermen only and no overnight parking. The W horizon isn't great from here. The campground sites have good horizons though. With a 6" scope and inferior eyepieces, I have seen all the Herschels in Ophiucus and Aquila from here, as well as most of the Herschels in Leo. A couple of times I've had to go farther to the entrance of Smith and Morehouse campground, which has poor horizons, but it's really dark.
Jay
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu