Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

I just had to go back to Pinos last night. I was solo Pinos!
Conditions were great with subdued light to the north from Bakersfield and to the south from Los Angeles. It made for a dark sky with no distractions for viewing multiple galaxies in Perseus, Pisces, Aries, Andromeda, and Pegasus. Sculptor rose high enough in the Southwestern sky to reveal more of its galaxies with NCG 253 being phenomenal at midnight.
Seeing conditions were also good with Uranus being a well-defined disc at high power.
Since the horizons were relatively free of light pollution, I could view objects in Aqaurius at a very low angle with the Saturn nebula taking high power with my 16" scope nearly horizontal! Ditto for Gemini and the Eskimo nebula at midnight.
I seemed to view more objects than on a crowded weekend at Pinos. No light light pollution, no crowds, no distractions and an 8300 ft mountain top for exclusive views!
A star party of one...

Hi Robert,
I'm planning on being there on Friday. The weather forecasts do seem to be showing decreasing winds in the area by Friday so it appears to be the best bet for the week.
I hope to see you and Linton up there on Friday.

Hi Robert,
I'm considering Friday but I'm waiting on weather reports (winds) and the clear sky clock forecast.
I'll probably go up there during early next week as well, Monday or Tuesday, depending on conditions.

Not to rain on anybody's parade but the Perseid meteor shower peaks on the 13th and if my past experience with it holds true, you'll have cars parked down the road leading up to the parking lot on Friday evening. In other words, it will be a zoo up there...

Oren Soffer said:


Hi all,

Anybody going to Pinos tonight or any other site in the area?

Oren.

Conditions look poor on the clock for Pinos and Lockwood Valley. I had hoped to go to Lockwood Valley but the transparency sucks and there are a lot of high cirrus clouds around Castaic and that's not a good sign. Pinos can be difficult on a weekend when there's snow on the slope and I've had nut cases drive up there at 10:00pm or later and illuminate the place with their lights mounted on 4X4s so they can slide down the slope with a snowboard.

That sucks, sorry to hear it...

Gosh, you guys are real people!