We had TWO locations for star gazing in May, and here’s the report for both of them:
Talley Vineyards: “I arrived at Talley about 7PM to hazy skies with wind. I waited until 7:30 and then decided to set up. The winds died down and by 9:30 we had pretty good seeing although water began to condense on my shroud and Telrad. We had about 4 very excited family groups and some CCAS meeting regulars. The 4-10 year old kids were blown away! We started with Jupiter (4 moons), Mars, and Saturn (4 moons). Joe and I kept trading off on objects so we tried to have different objects at the same time. After that we hit M-13 and M-5. They were hooked. So then to M’s 51, 57, 81,82, and 104. I tried the Cat’s Eye but too much haze to get a good image. We closed up about 11:30.” ~Tom Frey
KOA in Santa Margarita: “We had a lot of scopes and people at KOA last night. Seeing conditions started out terrible with the wind but calmed down about 10. I saw 3 of Saturn’s Moons while Kent saw 6. Chris and Reed made it with Nimbus- big bonus. M-51 with spiral arms totally visible. Another Bonus . We saw through both my Dob and Nimbus. With my 1.5 degree FOV my scope showed a fan shaped dust tail but no Ion tail. Nimbus showed more detail including some structure in the Coma. On the Sun-there was a big loop prominence visible and a couple of people were totally fascinated by the view through the H-Alpha.” ~Dave Majors
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