Hi, I was amazed that you made it out of the pit at all! Your eyesight must be a bit better than average. Most people drive out using their running lights, you did not even use those. (I know running lights can be bright, but we don't ask miracles from each other. At least not on a daily basis:).) Usually it is running lights to get out of the general area, maybe a few tenths of a mile, and then full headlights. It depends a little on the road, as a really bad road may call for headlights as soon as you are past the group, and the remaining viewers turn their heads to avoid the brightness. It is a judgement call, but you don't have to risk life and limb. It was nice meeting you last night. See you again soon, Jo Grahn At 11:13 PM 8/12/2004 -0600, you wrote:
I'm not surprised at the "not so good" reviews from the Valley. Not since I was a kid has anything above Salt Lake Valley looked even halfway decent. So would go meteorite showers I would tend to think.
I too thought the sky above the pit pretty good. I was pretty busy socializing to actually make a count, but based on the audible "ooohs and ahhhs" scale, I would guess that there were quite a few of these per minute. Everyone seemed to be having a good time watching them.
I did notice last night at the pit, while anticipating the meteroite shower, that standing up real quick seemed to drastically increase the number of visible shooters. Although I think I was the only one who could see those, they were pretty cool nonetheless. Hey, thanks to all those who let me gaze through their large aperture scopes. I have to say that it was nice meeting you all.
When leaving a dark sky site, is half a mile down the road considered far enough to turn the headlights back on? While trying to make the perfect dark site exit, I may have inadvertently run over some toes, sorry. My apologies also go out to the little creatures trying to cross the dirt road that didn't quite make it. ;)
And finally, at 5:30 this morning while laying in wait to catch the neighbor lady's newspaper thief, I did notice how cool the Moon, Venus and Orion looked all in a straight line with each other. Even from the Valley! Good times...