Fr: Michael Madigan, Cuyahoga Co. Ohio <snip> I am going to be visiting your fair state the 2nd week in January.

. . . I have never been to the western part of the country I hear great tales of how great the viewing. I was wondering if their was anyone in or around the Salt Lake City, Park City areas that I could possible hook up with for a little viewing time. . . . I will be available on the nights of 7th,8th,9th,10th cell number (216) 577-4060.

Mike, You may also want to send your request to the Park City astronomy club via "Utah Skies". website: http://www.utahskies.org/ email: info@utahskies.org If you are skiing at the higher elevation Park City resorts, they may be a good bet since their members can set up on the back porch. In general in Salt Lake City, scopes get packed up in Dec. and Jan. Both months are partly cloudy more than 80% of the time, overnight temperatures at higher elevations are between 0 and 20 degrees, and Utah suffers, like Cleveland, from "lake effect" snow off the Great Salt Lake. Additionally, the lower elevation Salt Lake City, being next to a mountain range suffers from extreme inversion haze, which we Utahan's escape by going to the higher elevation Park City. I have occassionally done full winter observing. For a dark sky experience, even with binoculars, I go to: 1) Along the Peoa highway outside of Park City. Park anywhere (where there is concrete shoulder) along the "Brown's Canyon Rd" between Park City and Peao. http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=40.683242&lon=-111.42334&mag=6 2) East Mirror Lake Highway at the fee station http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=40.628155&lon=-111.176663&mag=5 3) East Mirror Lake Highway at the snowmobile parking lot http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=40.595055&lon=-111.095295&mag=5 Both the Mirror Lake Highway sites are true dark sky sites. The Peoa Highway is not. The Mirror Lake Highway, late at night, should be driven at no more than 40 mph with eyes firmly concentrating on the road ahead. Invariably, there are black ice and elk, deer and even black skinned cattle on the highway after 11:00pm. Wildlife emergency stops are the rule, not the exception on that highway. To decide on a particular night, whether you are going to have an observing hole between storms, I use the NOAA weather sat image: http://www.weather.gov/sat_tab.php?image=ir Unlike Ohio, these locations are not well-travelled at night. You need to be sure your vehicle is in good working order and that you have an emergency sleeping bag in the car if you do break down. A shovel for digging out is recommend. You will need full ski gear good down to 0 degs for observing at night - a down jacket, a thick wool hat and gloves, and good insulating boots. But, being from Cleveland, where the only thing between you and the biting wind of the North Pole is a tall Canadian, you are familiar with extreme weather than we are. The difference here is with a lower population density, you should think in terms of self-rescue, not passing car rescue, when you drive away from urban areas. Absent a dew heater, you can use binos for 30-45 minutes before the lenses will freeze over, assuming you can remember to keep your breath away from the e.p. and objective lenses. Of course Mar is up, but at this time of year I recommend going when Orion is transiting around midnight. To the RA west of Orion, running north and south along the meridian, you will see the faint light of the antispinward side of our Orion-Cygnus arm. These include many clusters, like Hind's variable cluster and the Rosetta nebula. The whole region is full of smaller open clusters in the outbound arm of the Orion Arm. I have seen good zodical light in December and January, but that is usually a February-March event. - Kurt, SLAS member _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net