Log, Dec 24, 2001
2 people. After a couple of calls about Christmas Telescopes, I decided to open FDO in spite of heavy overcast and plunging temperatures. I strongly suggest that everyone with a Christmas Telescope (and everyone with a telescope of any era including a few folks like me with telescopes manufactured three decades ago) get out and look at Jupiter. We are reaching a peak period that comes every 13 months or so when Jupiter is basically high in the sky in the middle of the night.Bill Penhallow gave me a call about 6:10 PM asking how the viewing was at the Observatory. I told him that there was heavy overcast. Since Bill lives less than a mile away, one would think his skies were the same as ours. Seems he had looked out about 20 minutes earlier when things were clear, but in that small time, the sky went from clear to a palid Moon only night. By 7:00 PM the Moon had totally disappeared and stayed hidden until after our class was over. I considered opening at 10:30 PM but two things convinced me that it wasn't worth it. (1) The Moon was very bright through high overcast. Only first and second magnitude objects could be seen at all. (2) No one was there except myself and I will be the first to admit that damp cold overcast conditions are not my favorite. I wrapped up and left at 11:15 PM.This will wrap up the log for 2001, a year which has certainly not been very weather friendly to visitors to FDO. Let hope for nicer weather next year and a Sky Theater in the not too distant future when the weather turns ugly and sullen.-Les Coleman
