FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] 5 mile meadow Thursday night

["Paul Lind" <pulind@xxxxxxxxx>]

I observed with Joe Goss at 5 mile meadow Thursday night under great skies.  
Just before I arrived a number of Elk crossed the road in front of me and 
proceeded into the woods, oblivious to my approach.  It was cool, and there was 
a faint aroma of Ponderosa pines, further reminding me I had escaped Phoenix.  
Before dark I was a bit concerned about the weather because of lingering clouds 
and the many jet contrails crossing the entire sky and signifying moisture.  
All of that was gone by the time twilight ended.  Judging by Jupiter, the 
seeing was not too good, only about a 6, but it improved later.  After twilight 
the sky became very dark. Joe's SQM gave a reading of about 21.9.  He rated the 
transparency at an 8, minimum.  Also, the temperature was 39 degrees and 
falling at about midnight. This was 10 deg cooler than expected.   We both had 
14" scopes.  I was observing 13 mag Herschel 2 objects and Joe was seeing stuff 
more than a magnitude fainter.  I also observed a number of faint fuzzies from 
AJ's "Call for Observations".  
The only downside of the evening was the presence of campers across the meadow 
who were zooming around in ATVs.  Darkness didn't stop them, for they had 
headlights.  At one point they started a bonfire, and also turned on headlights 
directly at us from across the meadow.  Otherwise it was very peaceful.

Unfortunately, I had to return to Phoenix on Friday, be we certainly had great 
skies on Thursday.

- Paul Lind

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