[Chaos-l] Observing Last Night At Medoc

[Robert Nielsen]

After a week of miserable weather, I had to get out and observe last night ... even with the moon being out.   So the CSC looked good and I headed over to Medoc.   While there, Jim and Loren joined me for what (as best I can remember) was the first all-CHAOS observing night at the park.   I like it!   I miss having some of the other regulars who normally come, but I'm happy to see that other members of the club are coming over to enjoy the skies that Medoc has to offer.  It really is a nice place to observe.

Unfortunately, last night the skies weren't great.   While the cloud cover and rain of the past days had disappeared, there was still a LOT of moisture in the air, and with the 1st quarter moon in the sky, it was pretty washed out.   So we could easily observe the moon (even before sunset) and Saturn, which looked amazingly good even though it was low in the sky.   Those two were definitely the highlights of the night, and we showed them to the visitors that came over from the campground - Frank (who knew us from previous visits back in Feb-Mar) and Lucy and Allen, two people on the way back from watching the last shuttle launch.   I should have expected this ... Medoc is right next to I-95, and people heading north from the Orlando area could use it as an overnight stop.   Having watched Atlantis take off, they were obviously interested in space.  I tried to show them M13, M57, M27, M81 through "The Mistress" and while you could see them, the views were not spectacular.   I gave up and drove home around midnight.   Jim stayed later.

It was a good night out among the stars.  Not the best viewing, but that is what you get sometimes in the summer.  Allen and I have been at Medoc in the past month where the skies were amazingly good for the summer in NC.  The trick seems to be to pick an air mass with as little moisture as possible.  I will be looking out that for that in the next couple of months.

Thanks for Loren and Jim for coming out and sharing their scopes, and Jason for coming out and visiting.   If anyone else from the club wants to join us in the future, just keep watching this listserve for the next session!

Robert