Fleeing the fog bank that blanketed our intended Winton Avene, Hayward
primary site, four of us (Walt Morgan, Bob Garfinkle, Sandy Bumgarner,
self) raced to observe the graze from Marsh Road near Calavaras
Resevoir (East of Milpitus, out Calavaras Rd).
The roads were narrow and twisty, but after trying all alternative
routes, we found unmarked Marsh Road only to discover that it is FAR
shorter than shown on the Thomas Guide. Said shortness kept us from
achieving the graze line, so we observed a short total occultation and
reappearance, had a nocturnal chat with a farmer who was stopping work
at 10:30 PM to get up at 4 AM. Farmer initially figured that we were
some of "the usual crazies"; not sure what he thought after we said "no,
just lunatics", but he was pleasant enough; doubt that he sees many
welcome visitors.
There were three amazingly bright sunlit peaks just "down-light" of the
terminator. Seeing was soft at the early hour (10:45), so more than
120x was not very useful.
Retired to a Milpitis coffee shop to discuss video astro-cameras,
extracting times from video files, etc. Told lies, ate calories that
only Walt needed.
Robert