Log, Sep 5, 2008
21 people. All day we wondered what the skies would be during the night. Frankly the forecast was doubtful. If this sounds like the opening two lines of last week's logbook entry, score one for a perfect memory. However the evening didn't work out exactly like last week. The south stayed fairly clear between 7:30 when the first visitors got a peek at the Moon and about 10:00 when Tropical Storm Hanna's first cloud bands swept in. Although Hanna was coming from the south, the clouds moved in from the north first - typical of a New England Nor'easter.We looked at a number of objects through the night, featuring double stars and globular clusters. The clarity was middling - M22 only occasionally became the glorious sparkling diamonds strewn on a black velvet background. Often they were slightly fuzzy points of light grey against a dimmer gray background from Hanna.We basically had to begin the shutdown process early. And not a minute too soon. No sooner had I cleared the park entrance when the first rain squall lashed the car.Saturday, September 6, 2008 about 20 people. Whatever were we doing at 10:00 AM on a Saturday morning with Tropical Storm Hanna about? She had already dumped 1.4 inches of rain at my house overnight. Yet she relented enough to allow us to get the ground breaking for the Sky Theater in before she resumed her depredations.I am so pleased that it is finally underway.-Les Coleman
