Well, I'm glad someone got some observing in. Last night at Saddle Mountain was pretty much a bust. It was windy, windy, windy. Between equipment malfunctions and other minor disasters (AJ's 12v DC cigarette lighter adapter lost the spring loaded center contact, and someone I shall not name dumped battery acid all over the bed of his truck on the trip out), there was little else to do but commiserate on the leeward side of my van. AJ did get a few observations after I loaned him the adapter from by CB, and Richard got some wide-field shots with his Canon 5D, but that was it. Of course, we had some great conversation, and that is what always saves events that turn out like this. There was a discussion of the merits of the site itself. The preliminary conclusion is that it suffers from a few flaws, most notably that the headlights of west-bound traffic sweep the field for 5 seconds or so. This happened several times last night. Also there was comment about the distance from the freeway - closer would be better. So the site is not bad, but definitely not perfect. In the end, we were heading back toward the great light-dome by 10PM. Maybe next weekend. Nuts! Matt -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Coe Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 12:03 PM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Antennas site over the weekend Howdy all; Dave Fredericksen and I made our way out to the Antennas site and watched the trees roll around in the breeze as we drove to the site. The good news is that it did die off nicely about 9:30 and we observed a pretty wide Milky Way and I took photos with my new Canon Xt camera on the barn door tracker. At about 11 or so I had to know if I was getting decent results, so I fired up the laptop and David and I saw that the stars were small, and it sure did look like Sagittarius and Lyra. I observed with the 6" refractor for a while, shot a few more "photos" and fell into the sleeping bag around 2 AM. We awoke to clear, but breezy, day and the wind never completely went away. Saturday night Rich Walker drove in and we chatted over sandwiches in the twilight. I shot more photos and laid down for a nap about midnight. I set the alarm and woke at 4:30 to a beautiful conjunction of the Moon, Venus, Saturn and Regulus in Leo. It was beautiful in all forms-naked eye, binoculars and in the scope. After about two dozen shots with a variety of focal lengths the battery went dead and I went back to sleep for a few hours until we awoke, tore down and drove home. I think I learned a valuable lesson. Because I was trying to both observe and shoot pictures I did not do either one to my satisfaction. The images turned out OK, but some are out of focus and if I was not in a hurry to get back to observing I probably would have double checked focus before opening the shutter. In the same way, I got interrupted while observing by the timer telling me to close the shutter on the image. I think in the future, I will choose one activity or the other. But, we had fun; Steve Coe -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.4/1055 - Release Date: 10/7/2007 10:24 AM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.4/1055 - Release Date: 10/7/2007 10:24 AM -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.