All things considered I have found that I far prefer observing from midnight to sunrise more than I do from sunset to midnight. As you say, the world is asleep, and for some reason the sky just seems more steady and clear.
David Hofland Director, Student Services College of Nursing and Health Sciences Jacksonville State University 256.782.5276----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Hopkins" <phxjeff@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 12:40 PM Subject: [sac-forum] Re: July 28 from Cave Creek
Morning of 29 July from West Side of PhoenixWhile I went to bed early on Monday, I was up at 3:30 AM today observing. The sky was the best I have seen it in a long time. The waning Moon was low to the East with lots of Earth shine. The temperature in the observatory was a very comfortable 82. Observing went well.It is a real joy to observe early morning like that. No planes or other actively. The world is asleep. One gets the feeling of being alone and one with the universe. Great time!Jeff At 00:38 -0700 07/29/2008, Richard Harshaw wrote:Tonight (July 28) was awesome from Cave Creek. Although not as good as Cherry Road or the Antennas (of course!), the Milky Way and Great Rift were easy to trace, and I was observing 13mag galaxies from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am. Hope some of y'all got out and enjoyed this great sky. Supposed to be this good Tuesday night too.Richard Harshaw Cave Creek, AZ -- Jeff Hopkins HPO SOFT Counting Photons http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html Hopkins Phoenix Observatory 7812 West Clayton Drive Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A. (623)849-5889 (623) 247-1190 (Fax) www.hposoft.com