When we arrived on beautiful Mount Tamalpais at 5:00 p.m. we planned
to take a hike in the meadow near our observing site and see the
panoramic views before getting set for the first star party of 2003. The
Rock Springs parking lot is where the SFAA holds monthly star parties
from April until September every new moon Saturday night.
It was so cold and windy we immediatly put on all our observing clothes
and broke out the chemical hand warmers. We decided not to set up solar
telescopes, took a short hike and warmed up in our vehicle. It was
already cold and very windy, as predicted on the weather loops. A few
solar telescopes were already set up. Kerry Sagar had his new Coronado
filter and refractor set up. Another SCT and Kerry's 8-inch dob were
aimed at the moon. We stayed in our car and snacked on meat loaf
sandwiches and Merlot. :-)
Close to dusk we set up f/5.75 12.5-inch and f/4.8 14.5-inch reflectors.
Eventually 12 telescopes set up, and another half dozen (at least) other
astronomers arrived with telescopes and just didin't bother setting up
due to the wind and cold. An additional half dozen just didn't even
bother bringing a scope but came up for moral support and to mooch views
Mercury and Moon, Saturn and Jupiter looked quite good early at low
power.Leo and Ursa Major gals wowed everybody. There were only a few
visitors early - most people come to hear the lecture at 8:00 p.m. then
look through the telescopes at 9:00 p.m. Sometimes the audience is 400 -
last night maybe 100 or less. When the talk was over the people who were
not frozen came to the telescopes. It was so cold and windy that by
10:00 p.m. we all packed up and headed home. When we got home we watched
Thunderbids, a 1960's era sci- fi puppet show filmed
in"Supermarionation" showing on Tech TV now. Lots of fun!
Date: April 5, 2003
Observing Time: 6:30pm to 10:00pm PST
Location: Mount Tamalpais State Park
Lat 37.88 long 122.54 elevation 1970 feet
Equipment: 12.5" f/4.75 reflector
Eyepieces: 22 Televue Panoptic mostly 83x
Sky Conditions: LM using IMO area 4 alpha-epsilon-beta Gem 9 stars - 5.6
transparency 3/10; seeing 3/10
Temp/R.H.:39 degrees RH 70 percent steady all night, 20+ mph winds
-- Jane Houston Jones San Rafael, CA jane@No-Spam <mailto:jane@No-Spam> http://www.whiteoaks.com