Andy, Jamie, and all,
I've seen a surprisingly large number of occasions with outstanding
seeing (definitively sub-arcsecond) at MB. But it is certainly not
consistently so.
Perhaps the best nights of seeing I've had were both at the Peak. One
night near the observatory a year or two ago when several of us split
sub-arcsecond Porrima, and the other at Coulter row with an incredible
view of Nu Scorpii even down very low in the South; the latter was in
mid-2003, and, no surprise, Mars was looking really good that night.
Bob J.
(If the weather is looking very good, I may try the Peak this Saturday;
if not, maybe MB.)
--- Jamie Dillon <jamie_dillon@No-Spam> wrote:
> Andy, as you know I keep track of seeing each night I go out. In my
> memory, all the places on the Peak are about the same for chances of
> really good seeing. From the SW lot, Coulter, Ranger Row, the
> Observatory, I'd say your chances are about equal.
>
> That said, for those who haven't been going there multiple times over
>
> years, you oughta know that Fremont Peak is famous from Oregon down
> to Arizona for the seeing. Has to do with laminar flow and that's all
>
> I know about the theory. Can tell you, though, that an object has to
> be solid steady at 400x for me to note down 5/5, excellent. And a
> bunch of my log entries over years not only show 5/5 for the Peak,
> but details in observations demonstrate it. It was from the SW lot I
> once saw 1023A, a little satellite of that fine galaxy with the
> bright active nucleus. Ken Hewitt-White in Sky and Tel had tried to
> catch it from the mountains of British Columbia, with something like
> a 15, and couldn't. Seeing in this case won over aperture.
>
> MARS: In '99 one night in front of the Observatory, Rod Norden had
> his fancy mondo AP refractor trained on Mars. We were looking at the
> range of dunes that circle the north pole there, Vastitas Borealis.
> Unforgettable view.
>
> With Coe, Montebello, Lake Sonoma, Lake San Antonio, Dino mebbe again
>
> someday, right in our region we're incredibly lucky.
>
> DDK
>
> --
> Jamie Dillon <*> speech pathologist
> jamie_dillon@No-Spam
> "_____" -- Harpo Marx
>
Received on Thu Oct 20 14:52:07 2005