FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] AAMM 2008

["Bill VanOrden" <beevo1@xxxxxxx>]

What a weekend!!

        The carnage from the dust devils was something else.  I was fortunate to
only lose my "Shrine to The Wind Gods" (aka Canopy) because I waited too
long before taking it down.  My trailer awning survived the dust devil that
took Ken Sikes' canopy off of his trailer.  My sincerest condolences go out
to Jimmy Ray on the untimely death of his Celestron....

        Seems like the clueless were rampant this year! Hey folks, just because
your flashlight has a red lens or covering on it, DOES NOT mean it won't
ruin one's dark adaption...  Seriously, the intensity of several lights that
were shined in several observer's faces was unnecessary.  You could follow
the path of a couple of these people down the line by the commentary
following in their wake.  The well after dark arrivals of people who came in
with full headlights AND fog lights really made it quite unpleasant for a
number of observers.  Maybe we need to have a star party etiquette refresher
course?  :<)

        Friday night around midnight the sky had periods of good localized 
seeing
and Saturn was fantastic for a little while.  It was also pretty darned good
in the wee hours of Sunday am, as were a number of other objects.

        The telescope and the skies behaved and I fully tested my wireless hand
controller both nights and found to my pleasure no real bugs to work out.  A
little bit of coding in the controller processor will be needed to
facilitate the next level of control but other than that I found nothing
that needs a re-think.  The range was good enough that it took a pair of
10X50's to see movement at the highest slew speed of 3 degrees/sec.

        I left (once again) with more than I arrived with thanks to Jerry 
Farrar...

Beevo


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