[AZ-Observing] 5 mile meadow Thursday night
- From: "Paul Lind" <pulind@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:36:45 -0700
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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