Don, It was certainly the most fun I've ever had at a public star party, meeting polite, enthusiastic people from all over the world, and getting in some fabulous serious observing time after midnight to hunt the faint stuff in what I agree were some of the best seeing conditions I've experienced; the milky way WAS spectacular (casting shadows it was so bright). We die-hards didn't tear down until after 4 a.m. Saturday/Sunday morning in fact. I added 8 more H-400 objects to my list (galaxies in Ursa Minor and Ursa Major and a couple of GC's in Scorpio), and even nabbed Abell 43. The detail in M101 was by far the best I've ever seen, with a multitude of increasingly faint galaxies in the nearby FOV made it extra fun. My only regret was listening to the National Weather Service forecast for Friday night and staying away. I was bummed to miss the filets (which were SUPPOSED to be Saturday night IIRC!). I drove home Sunday afternoon (I managed to get about 6-hours of sleep in before the 11:00 checkout) a tad tired but very happy I made the trip. -Rich --- "Don J. Colton" <djcolton@piol.com> wrote:
Thanks to all who helped out at Bryce!
We had mostly clear skies Thursday and spectacular skies both Friday and Saturday nights. The Milky Way in Sagittarius was as good as I have seen it in the Northern Hemisphere with good seeing fairly low in the sky.
We had bacon wrapped filets, salads and cheesecakes at 1 AM and several of us stayed up all night Friday.
The Rangers want to make it even better next year with the filets at 1 AM and omelets at 5 AM.
Clear Skies Don Colton
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