28 people. This evening was one of the most frustrating types for us. The clouds kept coming and going, teasing us into thinking that we might actually get some observing done. Instead, whenever we identified a clear patch of sky, the clouds would beat us to it, rendering viewing impossible.

In an odd application of Murphy's law, no matter how long we'd see a section of the sky be clear, and no matter how far away the clouds seemed from out target, they'd beat us every time!

We started at twilight with Alberio, the always pleasing multi-colored variable at the head of Cygnus. A good number of folks got to see that before the clouds caught on to what we were doing.

The moon was full, so it cut even further the number of potential targets, but made up for it by being an interesting target itself. We managed a few decent views simply by waiting out the clouds.

With little to see, the crowds were sparse. There's always next week.

-Joe Hartley

Author:

Leslie Coleman

Entry Date:

Jul 14, 2000

Published Under:

Leslie Coleman's Log