Log, Mar 30, 2007
14 people. Ernie and I arrived early to get the dome motor down. The motor, gear box, clutch and support structure weighs quite a bit and is coated with grease. Sort of a heavy slippery yet easily damaged gadget. Yeehah! It took longer than I expected but we managed to get it down.Ernie asked if I was actually going to open. We could barely make out anything besides the Moon and Venus through the high clouds. Way off to the east we could see Arcturus peeking out under the cloud layer and in the north there was a break. I pointed out to the people who were around that the cloud layer was a "mackeral sky". The "scaly" texture is caused by rolling "waves" in the air. As the air rises it gets denser and as it drops it thins.As the night wore on, the clear strip to the north moved south! At least it headed in the right direction. Venus was easy to see. Then Saturn and several of its moons were very clear, in spite of their proximity to the Moon. Then M42 and M43 and the Trapezium reminded us of the pass of Winter into Spring. We watched the mighty hunter fall down on the job, finally falling asleep on his right side on the western horizon.Next week, there is a very strong chance that I will be under the weather even if it is clear. I won't know how well I'll feel until fairly close to opening. It just goes to show how organized I am. How many folks do you know who schedule feeling less than par a week ahead of time.-Les Coleman
