The folks who went out mid-week made the right call. On Mar 24, 2012 12:34 PM, "Chrismo" <djchrismo@gmail.com> wrote:
Keeping my fingers crossed that things will clear up for tomorrow night, but so far, I'm not too confident...
On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Jay Eads <jayleads@gmail.com> wrote:
I arrived out at the Pit around 5:00p.m. yesterday. It was very cloudy and wind gusting to 10mph to 12mph. To the north skies were clearing and I've found that though not perfect, Skippy Sky Astronomy at http://www.skippysky.com.au/NorthAmerica/ gives a pretty realistic forecast if you combine it with local NWS satellite images and their forecast. By 7:00p.m. the sky was mostly clear and the wind was dying down. By 8:00p.m. skies as Skippy had shown were totally clear and the wind was gone. Jorge, my friend Shahid and I were observing and Mat was going to arrive around 9:00p.m. I got a wonderful view and sketch of the new supernova in M95. That one at 13.1 right now should easily brighten to low 12 to upper 11, maybe even going down. It showed easily in my 14 inch dob. Split Sirius last night also in the twilight. Skies were average transparency but it was good seeing and as the night progress, the sky above 35 degrees settled down nicely. I got a few reflection nebula in Orion I needed and then spent my time with galaxies in Leo and Virgo. Dew wasn't a problem until around 1:00a.m. and then the dew heaters were working. We closed up around 2:30a.m. and left at 3:00a.m.
On a side note at that time Mat was coming out there was a lot of police and emergency cars/trucks up near 5 Mile Pass. I thought for sure they were doing a speed trap and nailed Mat with a ticket. Nope. Jorge got out his binoculars and saw a variety of police, fire and ambulances up there so now we were concerned that Mat was in an accident. I'll let Mat discuss what he saw and tried to do (he was going to call and say they were in an accident etc., to which my reply would have been is the 16 inch mirror okay?). I guess an ATVer crashed driving around at night up there and was hurt. The emergency crews were up there for well over an hour and a half.
I'll have to watch the wind today but if it dies down I'll probably go back out this evening as I have plenty of galaxies in Virgo and Como Bernices to hunt down. Might go to Vernon, we'll see on conditions. I'll only be staying out until 12:30a.m. or so. Oh, if you ever want to know conditions just give me a call on the cell, its listed in SLAS or email me off list and I'll give it to you.
Jay
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-- Chrismo I fix things, all kinds of things...
Club Allure Sandy, UT
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