I decided to head up to Pinos Friday night because the clear sky clock predicted good conditions and moonrise wouldn't happen until 1:30 with the moon clearing the treeline at 2:00am.
The road to the parking lot is open with about three feet of snow covering the areas adjacent to the lot. One other amateur, a gentleman from the CN forum, was up there but only for a view of the mountain and he and his wife left at sundown.
It appeared I was going to be solo at Pinos which was just fine with me but, alas, it was not to be.
As darkness fell, I could easily discern the A and E stars in the trapezium in my 16" reflector with only 3rd magnitude stars visible in the deep twilight. The seeing was excellent and I thought to myself: "This is going to be a great night!"
Then, the herd of boyscouts arrived for "winter manuevers" as their scout master informed me when he asked me where the camground was located. The guy was dressed in a teeshirt and didn't have a clue about the location of the chula vista campground which is located a quarter of a click north of the parking lot. I thought to myself, "What do I look like, the shell answer man?
Anyway, I directed the geek and his freezing herd to the campground, told them to put on the cold weather gear and hunker down for the night.
I thought to myself, great I've got them safe, secure and out of my hair with their lanterns, flashlights and BS gear.
The sky was looking even better by then and I started my routine of picking off various galaxies from the Observer's Guide when two boatloads of amigos rolled into the lot and parked right next to me. Lights everywhere, blaring music, boxes of food but no stars. I thought to myself, "I'm outgunned ten to one, I don't have a flak jacket and my SUV isn't up-armored, what do I do?"
The next thing I know, I'm helping the little ones up the ladder to the eyepiece of my scope with a line of all ten, and I mean all ten, of the new arrivals for a look at Saturn, the double cluster, M42, M65 and so on. I thought to myself, "Maybe I should've set up on the Arizona border and offered them free looks at Mars on their way over!"
Anyhow, lights out, with ten happy amigos directed by me to the campground, right next to the boyscouts!
Finally, it was down to business and I felt I was being rewarded by a truly outstanding evening. The seeing was superb with occasional moments of subarc second viewing. I didn't see a lightdome on the horizons which I thought was odd and the dark sky meter was showing 21.85 at the zenith! I then realized I could pick off mag 6.5 plus stars visually and I suspected Los Angeles was being fogged-over.
But, my superb evening was not to be.
At 11:00 pm or thereabouts, two more boatloads of cousins arrived, in 4X4 pickups with all of the round lights on top of the them fully illuminating the parking lot.
More blaring music, lights, lights and more lights.
I watched them put up a huge tarp next to the parking lot and, as they unloaded their firewood, I uploaded my scope into my vehicle. There's not supposed to be any camping on the lot but I'm not the forest circus so I felt it was best to leave, intact. I have no idea what they were all doing up there but I the next time I go up to Pinos I expect to find a taco stand!
On my way home I found the reason for the exceptionally dark skies at Pinos: heavy fog was evident at Templin highway and beyond. I had to switch on my emergency blinkers so I could be seen and I was very concerned about hitting another vehicle so I slowed down and crawled through the pass.
Maybe I'll have better luck next week...
The road to the parking lot is open with about three feet of snow covering the areas adjacent to the lot. One other amateur, a gentleman from the CN forum, was up there but only for a view of the mountain and he and his wife left at sundown.
It appeared I was going to be solo at Pinos which was just fine with me but, alas, it was not to be.
As darkness fell, I could easily discern the A and E stars in the trapezium in my 16" reflector with only 3rd magnitude stars visible in the deep twilight. The seeing was excellent and I thought to myself: "This is going to be a great night!"
Then, the herd of boyscouts arrived for "winter manuevers" as their scout master informed me when he asked me where the camground was located. The guy was dressed in a teeshirt and didn't have a clue about the location of the chula vista campground which is located a quarter of a click north of the parking lot. I thought to myself, "What do I look like, the shell answer man?
Anyway, I directed the geek and his freezing herd to the campground, told them to put on the cold weather gear and hunker down for the night.
I thought to myself, great I've got them safe, secure and out of my hair with their lanterns, flashlights and BS gear.
The sky was looking even better by then and I started my routine of picking off various galaxies from the Observer's Guide when two boatloads of amigos rolled into the lot and parked right next to me. Lights everywhere, blaring music, boxes of food but no stars. I thought to myself, "I'm outgunned ten to one, I don't have a flak jacket and my SUV isn't up-armored, what do I do?"
The next thing I know, I'm helping the little ones up the ladder to the eyepiece of my scope with a line of all ten, and I mean all ten, of the new arrivals for a look at Saturn, the double cluster, M42, M65 and so on. I thought to myself, "Maybe I should've set up on the Arizona border and offered them free looks at Mars on their way over!"
Anyhow, lights out, with ten happy amigos directed by me to the campground, right next to the boyscouts!
Finally, it was down to business and I felt I was being rewarded by a truly outstanding evening. The seeing was superb with occasional moments of subarc second viewing. I didn't see a lightdome on the horizons which I thought was odd and the dark sky meter was showing 21.85 at the zenith! I then realized I could pick off mag 6.5 plus stars visually and I suspected Los Angeles was being fogged-over.
But, my superb evening was not to be.
At 11:00 pm or thereabouts, two more boatloads of cousins arrived, in 4X4 pickups with all of the round lights on top of the them fully illuminating the parking lot.
More blaring music, lights, lights and more lights.
I watched them put up a huge tarp next to the parking lot and, as they unloaded their firewood, I uploaded my scope into my vehicle. There's not supposed to be any camping on the lot but I'm not the forest circus so I felt it was best to leave, intact. I have no idea what they were all doing up there but I the next time I go up to Pinos I expect to find a taco stand!
On my way home I found the reason for the exceptionally dark skies at Pinos: heavy fog was evident at Templin highway and beyond. I had to switch on my emergency blinkers so I could be seen and I was very concerned about hitting another vehicle so I slowed down and crawled through the pass.
Maybe I'll have better luck next week...
You are certainly welcome to come as my guest any time you like. Next Saturday is the star party there an if you like, just come on up if the weather is good and you will be my guest.
)