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Elevation: about 5000 feet, temperature: mid 60's to upper 50's, slight SW breeze HUMIDITY: WELL UNDER 10%!!! Some of the observers had never seen a Kendrick dew heater, nor did they know its purpose. Equipment: Celestron 8 x 56 Ultima binoculars (primary instrument). Also viewed through Mitch's 17.5" Colter, Jim's C-8, and Tim & wife's 12" LX200 and TV 85. This was the dark sky observing site for the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, at a distance of about 80 miles from Las Vegas, (about a 65 minute drive). Interstate except for the last 10 miles which is open cattle range. I saw lots of jack rabbits and those little long tailed rat like things as I drove the two lane. I think the speed limit was 55, but the road allowed me to easily climb to 70.I had to be careful about that. It was in the middle of a Joshua tree forest, with lots of sagebrush to give a wonderful odor to the air, and cactus (to be very careful around). Everyone I spoke with was very nice, and the LVAS has much to be proud of. I think there were over 25 people observing just along the side of the road. I don't know how many were back further. They regularly get over 60 people per meeting. Arrived on site about 8:15 and many folks were set up. Most just pulled off to the side of the road and set up right there. I was told there were some folks who drove a little further off the road for photography purposes, but didn't see any of them. I visited four sets of folks and the following scopes along with the above scopes: another LX200 12", 15" Colter hybrid, ETX-70, ETX-90, Orion 4" short tube (funny looking scope) and some others that I can't remember. I only saw two scopes that did not have either goto capability or digital setting circles. One was the C-8 and he just didn't get them yet, the other was the TV- 85. More on the 85 later. I saw the moon through the Orion and the Colter hybrid. The LX200 12" was on Mars, and the collimation was so far off I couldn't get it to focus. It was an elongated disk. At first I thought it was my eyes, but looking through the other LX200 at 'my' site told me my eyes were fine. It was a beautiful night. The Milky Way went from horizon to horizon. The dark bands were clearly visible, and many of the Messier objects were naked eye. The Sagittarius region was wonderful. I simply scanned the sky with the binos. I noticed Tim was not using the TV-85 for any viewing so I asked if I could. He had the 35 mm Panoptic eyepiece in, along with an O-III filter. I went to the Veil, Pelican, and North American nebulas to start, then over to the Swan and Eagle nebulas. He took the O-III filter for the 12" and the Omega nebula through his 12" was fantastic. The best view of the Veil came through the 17.5" Colter. It really looked three dimensional. The best view through the LX200 was M-13. I don't think I've seen globulars any better than those views through an SCT. And the Meade really did it justice. The sky was as steady as I've ever seen. The stars barely twinkled at all. The best view through the C-8 was M-51, the Whirlpool galaxy. Jim has just gotten into astronomy and purchased his telescope. He wasn't real sure how to use the thing, but was fairly certain digital setting circles were in his future. The best view of the night through the TV-85 was the North American nebula. The sky was best viewed with binoculars. It was easy to locate all kinds of things, but just looking for patterns and anything new really was fun. I was able to locate the following through the binoculars: Messiers 17, 18, 24, 16, 11, 4, 80, 13, 31, and 32, and a lot of other stuff I was unable to verify. What stood out most with the binoculars were the dark regions of the Milky Way. I also viewed 51, 109 and 110 through the C-8. Looked at 51 and 101 through the TV-85 as well. I had forgotten to search for the coordinates for Comet Linear earlier in the day, but Mitch had them. (Is it a surprise that he is also a physics teacher?) We scanned the sky with binoculars first and he located the comet. He pointed it out to me, then centered his Colter on it. We were unable to see any tail, but the nucleus was starlike with a diffuse area around it. I think I liked the binocular views of it better than the telescope. Corona Austrina was clearly visible underneath the teapot. At 33 degrees latitude, that extra five degrees made a pretty big difference on what could be seen. Interestingly enough, I think it was a darker sky at Laurel Highlands. I could not make out anything more dim than 5.5 magnitude stars, although Mitch said he could. I do think the Milky Way was a brighter object here, almost casting shadows. Las Vegas cast a light dome to the NNE that climbed about 20 degrees. The individual light atop the Luxor could be distinguished in the light dome. I wish it was EXtinguished. Earlier I said the Milky Way went from horizon to horizon. I should have said it went from horizon to the Luxor. We were approximately 55-60 miles from LV as the crow flies. There were no light domes any other direction. Overall, this is an excellent site, but I think our WV skies, except for the humidity, are better. We just don't get these kinds of nights as often. Larry
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