I'm all for a diversity of observing locqations. You'll never see me say
that I'm following the pack. But 4 TACies at three sites last night was a
bit much. I was at Coyote Lake, which like the other sites experienced thin
high cirrus early but after 8:30 or so was fairly clear, but far from
pristine. I venture to say it was warmer than either MB or FP (about 48
degrees at 11:15 pm) and much darker than MB. My rule of thumb is to avoid
MB when there are high clouds, since they reflect the light pollution, and
to avoid Coyote Lake when there are low clouds or fog. No time for a full
OR, but I was seeing mag 12.7 galaxies in my Teleport and M101 looked
decent, which is indicative of pretty good darkness. It was a little dewy.
Catalytic hand warmers make great dew removers on a finderscope. My
secondary stayed dry, but just barely.
Andrew Pierce
Received on Mon Mar 27 14:50:52 2006