Log, Feb 10, 2006
10 people. Well, the afternoon was absolutely clear, and so was the evening. Full of hope, I opened up and noticed a "moon dog", one of those bright halos that are composed of ice crystals around the Moon. I turned the scope towards Saturn just as a couple of families with young kids arrived. We spent the next twenty five minutes trying to catch glimpses of Saturn as clouds washed over the planet. You could hear conversations like, "Saturn is getting brighter ... Oops, there it goes again" all over the dome. We had similar lack of success with M42 and finally even the Moon was a problem. You could see the clouds fly across the image when the Moon was visible and then fill in to complete darkness.We might have closed up by 8:30 to 9:00 except that we used the time to show the details of the scope to a new member (Mike Black) and a visitor from Worcester who is setting up his own observatory. Our visitor was very favorably impressed with the dome and the scope. Sometimes we forget exactly how fortunate we are to have such an installation. From the details of the construction of the piers that support the scope, to the vibration sapping gaskets, to the automation (as far as it goes) of the dome, and the size of scope, we really have quite an installation. So even on a cloudy night, there are times we have a good evening.-Les Coleman
