David Silva, Bob Douglas and I met for an early dinner in Healdsburg on
Wednesday and then drove up to Lake Sonoma before sunset and set up at
Grey Pine Flat. Conditions were a mixed bag – clear, fairly good
transparency and dry but there was a fairly consistent 5 mile/hr breeze
that kept the conditions colder than expected though the breeze didn't
really affect our observing. Also, seeing was soft at above 250x and
hence contrast was a bit down from average at this site. It was a GOTO
Starmaster only night – two 18-inch GOTO scopes (Bob and myself) and
one 14.5-inch (David)! I spent most of the time chasing faint galaxies
in Draco and Ursa Major and saved the eye candy until after 11:00 when
Virgo and Coma were well placed. All in all, it was a great mid-week
outing and nice to see clear, dry skies again.
Steve Gottlieb
Received on Fri Apr 1 13:30:52 2005