Kurt, I will echo Daniel's comment that it was a pretty good night for SPOC at the spring equinox. My admittedly non-scientific impression is that the sky was noticeably darker to the west and southwest (as it usually is), which may explain why M42 was so outstanding that night. I'm assuming your measurement was for the zenith? Even looking at the winter Milky Way, that part of the sky still seemed darker than other regions. And the transparency was exceptional. Even when the breeze picked up about 10:30, the seeing only degraded marginally. I wish I could have stayed longer, but family obligations prevented me. Still, a few hours is better than nothing. My astronomical juices are flowing again, like sap in the trees. On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 2:45 AM, daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> wrote:
Kurt:
I thought the night was pretty good for the season of the year. Anytime you can get mostly clear on a moonless Friday night with no frost you sort of have to do something about it. The cool people at the west end were afflicted with mosquitoes and dated humor from last century. But it was good to be out with friends again.