CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Old Town Monrovia, CA Sidewalk Astro -- Aug 18

The weather kept us guessing almost right up to "show time." Even as late as 6:30pm, I was thinking it was a 50% proposition that the telescopes would see any light. "Fortunately," I'm down to just one telescope this month. [You'll recall from a previous post above that mount number two is out of commission; it's now sitting in Irvine, getting repaired]. That meant packing the car took just half the time, which is nice when you're thinking you might be wasting your time.

The clouds started thinning as the sun set, however. So score another one for the Clear Sky Clock, which forecasted mostly clear skies, but with poor transparency and good seeing for yesterday evening. The seeing was good (when the clouds weren't masking the view)--multiple cloud belts and a Great Red Spot transit were there to be enjoyed by all.

It was a relatively slow night, slow enough that I managed to steal a few views through some of the other telescopes on the corner. But the lulls lasted no more than a few minutes at a time, except towards the end (more on that later). So I'll guess I had between 60-80 people look through my telescope over the 2 1/2 hours or so I was on the street corner.

By 9 to 9:30pm, the clouds were getting thicker. At times, Jupiter would become invisible to the naked eye, and extremely hard to make out in the telescope. We also lost the moon to clouds on occasion. So, during that last half-hour, there were times when there was nothing to do but wait for the clouds to part. This makes it twice in a row that we've been partially clouded out.

On the other hand, the breaks in the viewing gave me a chance to snack. I already had a bowl of fruit, packed just in case our planned sidewalk astronomy was reduced to a social visit with our friends in Monrovia. In addition, around 9pm, the art gallery across the street was wrapping up their showing. So a guy came over with a tray of little sandwiches [What? No champaign?!

]. And, hey, being part Wookie ("Nice going, Chewy! Always thinking with your stomach"), I wasn't going to let all those little sandwiches go to waste (To waist, but not to waste!). So while we waited for breaks in the clouds, both sidewalk and accidental astronomers were well-fed. Thank you, artists!

That's it for this month.

I'm not sure if we're going to aim for September 15 or the 22nd as the "first quarter moon weekend" next month. I suspect the 22nd is more likely, but that depends on everyone else's schedule. Either way, I'm sure either Scott or I will post once we know for sure.

I know we've got a number of CNers in the area; be nice to see some of you next month!

Edited by Zebra24601 (08/27/07 03:05 AM)