FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] The long, strange trip of AJ and Steve

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well;

It all started at Cherry Road.  AJ, David and I drove up on Friday and =
had a
mediocre night.  Matt showed up and set up for a few hours and he and =
David
had to return to the city for family considerations.  We had some nice =
views
of Jupiter and Saturn with Matt's 11 inch and the bino-viewer.  AJ and I =
did
some double stars and a few objects in Serpens for his article in the
newsletter.  We both went to sleep around 2 AM.

The next morning the clouds coming down off the Rim convinced us that we
were not going to get a better night on Saturday and so we packed up and
left the Cherry site to the army of ants that live there.

We drove into Prescott and had a great meal in the air conditioning at =
the
Chili's and made plans.  We drove on through Prescott and down the =
beautiful
drive among the pine trees in Prescott National forest.  There is no =
camping
except in designated areas and all of them are surrounded by tall trees, =
not
a good spot for viewing the sky.  We drove on down the hill and drove =
past
an old observing site near the little town of Hillside, it was =
interesting
to realize that we used to climb a steep road to get to the top of that
hill.

No other observing sites seemed to show themselves and so we decided to =
get
away from the clouds building along the Rim and make it on down to the
desert.  After a gas stop in Yarnell, we descended to the desert floor =
and
drove to the site off of Eagle Eye road about 70 miles from central =
Phoenix.
We set up, got a great view of the crescent Moon near Venus and took a =
nap.
We awakened to see the Moon about ready to set and saw a few clouds off =
to
the east.

So, we decided to take on some objects in Draco and we observed in that
constellation for several hours.  By now the clouds we coming in thicker =
and
we were running out of energy.  So, we took a quick look at Jupiter, =
enjoyed
the bands and some nice detail in the festoons and called it a night.

I don't know the exact number, but we must have driven 200 miles all
totaled.  It does seem worth it, but I do hope that we have better luck =
with
the clouds next New Moon for a trip to Five Mile Meadow.  We shall see.

Clear Skies to us all;
Steve Coe
 =20

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