Just a quick note about limiting mag.
I was in North Hills (used to be Sepulveda) in the San Fernando Valley,
north of Los Angeles from Thursday until this afternoon. Thursday and
Friday evenings were cloudy. Last night was perfectly clear. This was
from the street I lived on from age 10 to 18... pretty much in the middle
of the valley.
I went outside to look at the sky about 11 p.m. and saw the Finnish
Triangle number 11 (http://www.seds.org/billa/lm/rjm11.html) - which I am
most familiar with - Alpha Corona Borealis to Gamma then Alpha
Bootis. While I can count at times around 60 stars (mag 7.2) in the
triangle from such sites as Shingletown and Bumpass Hell, and 52 stars (mag
7.0) from Michelle Stone's Plettstone location, from North Hills I counted
10 stars. I was rather surprised to find that it equates to mag
5.0. That's not bad from such a densely populated urban location. Of
course, I also count stars that are averted vision. It made me want to do
a count again from my backyard in Los Gatos.
I hope all on this list had a great Easter or Passover, or just a great
weekend.
Clear skies!
Mark Wagner