[AZ-Observing] Observing Report - GCSP South Rim - Day 7 - The Clouds Roll In
- From: skylook123@xxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:00:04 -0400
Grand Canyon Star Party South Rim - DAY SEVEN - The Clouds Roll In
Location: Yavapai Point Observing Station, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about
340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation
Weather: 60s at sunset, mid 50s when we quit at 9:30 PM. Some sucker holes
allow Saturn and Venus through early on, but by the end of the night talk the
sky was lost.
Seeing and Transparency: None. Overcast with heavy rain clouds
Equipment:
18" f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs
After a long, miserable night of coughing, the day is not much better. This has
GOT to leave.
This head cold bug, though, will not quit. The sleep deprivation from coughing
all night is getting awfully annoying.
I went over to Marker Marshall's office and turned in the Volunteer Service
Agreements and Visito Contact forms that other astronomers had dropped off in
our truck. The names will be used in a drawing tomorrow for some prizes offered
by The Roayal Astronomical Society of Canada.
We got to the site and astronomical activities are impossible. About 15 die
hards set up, but after a teaser sucker hole around 6 PM, the overcast
reclaimed the sky. Around 7:50 we set up for Dennis and his scenic astronomy
presentation: a mix of his astronomical and geological mixed views, using
clever natural or man-made lighting. Captivated the audience as usuall. I
screwed up the flow by starting with a computer I'd hybernated during the
afternoon email review. As a result, I didn't have enough RAM for some of
Dennis; pictures, and it seems that there had been software downloads during
the wifi session and now it kept throwing reboot requests on the screen. We
muddled through, Dennis is quite relaxed about the whole snafu.
During setup for the talk we can barely see the North Rim, except for
lightening. Although the sky had cleared up a bit during Dennis' talk, by 9 PM
the sky was totally obsucurred and distant lightening was entertaining us. We
headed back to the room around 9"30 PM. Looking over the North Rim, it seems
obscurred by rain so I don't thing they were able to get any sky time in either.
Tomorrow promises similar weather. We may have had hour final GCSP night this
year. All that is left is former Ranger's pot luck lunch. May get rained on
like last year!
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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