Nice report. But since you're a rev., can't you get a word in with somebody about the hideous humidity and frost? -- Joe --- On Mon, 2/14/11, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> wrote:
From: Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Lakeside nights To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Monday, February 14, 2011, 6:53 AM
To chime in on the discussion on recent observing:
I wasn't as brave as Jay, and waited to go west until the temperature came up a little. I did two nights at Lakeside this week. First was Wednesday early morning. That was the colder one, but hand and toe warmers did the trick. The haul was 41 objects in two hours. It was a little humid, but not unbearable. When I went to pack up, everything was frost-covered.
The second night was last night. I just got back. I woke up at about 2:30 and it was cloudy. Weather said cloudy in the west too. I decided to go anyway. I had incorrectly estimated moonset, so I arrived at Lakeside at 3:45 under 70% cloud clover with the moon still up. I set up all the same, because Rho Virginis was visible, and that was the area I wanted. In all, I maintained the utterly undignified pace of one object per minute for 70 minutes. It was a lot of fun to see the old Messier friends from Virgo and notice the half dozen other galaxies in each field that were new. It was dripping wet humid; temp about 25 F. The little patch around Virgo and Coma stayed clear, and eventually the sky cleared up, contrary to Weather Channel predictions (I try to average their entries for Dugway and Dugway Proving Grounds for Lakeside; CSC is often not updated, even though their forecasts seem more accurate).
So I'm done with the H400. And I think it's time to take a break from observing until camping season starts...
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
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