OI Pinnacles west side Saturday night the 16th

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Will be in the lot by the visitors center.

Haven't gone to the Pinnacles on a Saturday night in a while, see how it goes.

Remember the gate is working, you have to get there by 8 pm.

[Vishal Kasliwal]

I might join you there. If not, I'm on the East side. Kinda depends on what my friend says vis-a-vis camping spot availability.

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[Mark Wagner]

Where would you set up on the East side?  I thought we were going to get thrown in jail there (not quite).

[David Cooper]

Peter Natscher and I were at Pinn West last night.  A beautiful night - low wind, comfortable temperatures and a really dark sky, the best I have seen there in several years.  We got SQM readings of 21.5-21.6 around midnight.  The Milky Way was simply stunning around 1 AM. We met a new young Ranger named Thomas who was very friendly and accommodating.  He even switched off the outside bathroom lights for us.  Hopefully he is indicative of a new regime of administrators at the Park who will be more accommodating to us stargazers in the future.

[Akarsh Simha]

Good to know you weren’t Pinned down and put in Pinnstripes 🤣

This is very encouraging news, thank you for sharing!

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[Raymond Wong]

Ditto what Akashi said.  Are we allowed to car camp overnight, or do we need to just pack up and drive home?  

Cheers, 73s, Clear Skies and Clear Blocks,

Ray

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[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Ray and Mark, our TAC observing sites notes on both sides of the Pinnacles are accurate and up to date.

https://observers.org/pinnacles-west/   and  https://observers.org/pinnacles-east/

Ray, there is no form of camping allowed on the west side of the Pinnacles.What several people do is stay at the Motel 6 in Soledad, nice place and not expensive.

[Raymond Wong]

Jamie:  Thank for the info.  Didn’t want to ruin thinks for TAC folks, nor get yelled at.   If the weather behaves, I hope to be there Saturday evening.  

Cheers, 73s, Clear Skies and Clear Blocks,

Ray

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[Francesco Meschia]

SJAA has a public star party at the East side on Saturday.

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[David Cooper]

Responding to Raymond’s previous question. On Sunday Peter and I left the West side at around 2 AM and drove to our respective motel rooms in Soledad.  Currently the Park rules still forbid sleeping in your car overnight on the West side. Thomas seemed to be more forgiving on that issue but I don’t think you can count on being allowed to do so in the future.  So there is no guarantee that you will not be unceremoniously expelled from the park at 3 AM if you are found sleeping in your car. 

Thomas said that currently there is no head ranger at the park but a new one is expected to start in July and according to Thomas he seems to be a nice fellow.  The new head ranger may be more amenable to relaxing the rules a bit.  I don’t consider sleeping in your car for a few hours to constitute “camping” unless I set up a cook station and start hanging wet laundry out on my Dob to dry. Thomas seemed to agree and understood the imposition of having to pack up and drive 2 hrs home at 2 AM after an evening of observing. We’ll see how things unfold in the future. For now don’t count on being able to sleep in your car on the West side unmolested.

[Mark Wagner]

Thanks David.  Let's hope it works out.  Very convenient site.

[Peter Natscher]

Driving out of the park to comfortable rooms and beds At Motel 6 15 minutes away has been working well for Dave and I.  We get more quality sleep doing that than napping in the cargo space of a vehicle. At our ages, I recommend that.