night at the peak

Last night I went to Fremont Peak to support the public viewing night and to give my nearly finished 10-inch f/3.8 a darker sky try-out. I built a Springsonian mount for it; similar to a dobsonian but the axis of altitude rotation is at the eyepiece, not near the primary. I can sit comfortably and view, and move the scope to targets in that hour of right ascension without having to get up from my chair. I used an adjustable observer's chair so when the public guests came to my scope I could have them all sit for a view, no matter what height they were. The configuration proved it's worth when I was able to track the Jupiter/Venus conjunction all the way to the horizon while sitting, not having to contort or scrouch to reach the eyepiece. I used low power the whole night, 35x at 2.3° TFOV (with Paracorr). I have a fantasy about becoming an old school comet sweeper, and this is a good scope for it. It's wonderful for large extended objects and for dreamily scanning the Milky Way, which is pretty much what I did for the night.

SQML at zenith ranged from 20.7 to 20.9 from midnight to 2am. There was a marine layer to help with light pollution but we seemed to lose about half a mpas2 due to light scatter from the smoke. Winds were from the WSW so smoke was blowing over the site, and sometimes we could smell it. The sky from -10° down was badly obscured. When at meridian I could see the major stars making the Capricornus "smile," but no others within it. Fomalhaut shown brightly but I could not see any stars whatsoever below it. I found the Helix in the scope but it was a formless splotch. In the morning I hiked up to the summit. The sky to the south had very thick smoke haze; here's a couple pictures.

The haze, of course, is merely an inconvenience, and will pass. Those who have lost property and the family who lost their father to the fires deserve our compassion and support.