Dinosaur Point is back (sort of)

[Brad Templeton]

For those interested in Dinosaur Point, there is a new park interpreter there who is interested in helping us, name of Adam Hightchew.

The bad news is they won't give us our own lock, so we would need to plan in advance, and he's interested, at least a few times, in being there with us (a requirement), willing to stay until around midnight on Saturday to Tuesday evenings.  Wed-Th-Fr evenings are not available.

This might not be so good for a small OI where only 1-2 astronomers want to go, but could be reasonable for a larger group.  It doesn't have to be a public star party, though he wants to learn how to hold one.  (He is not experienced at present.)

The docks location by the water on Dino Point is a similar driving time to Coe park.  About one hour from South Bay because it's all highway.   It has Bortle 3 to the south, decent to the north, poorer to the east.  I am told the quarry on the other side of the reservoir has lights on at night now, but I don't know how much of a dome they put up in the SE.

This can be a windy place in the summer season, so we may want to wait  for more calm times.  https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/san_luis_reservoir has the wind and cloud forecast.

I'm out of town until July, and we may wish to wait until the fall, but if a reasonable sized group wants to do a night there, we should organize it sometime.    New moon in July is GSSP and Oregon SP.   In August it's Perseids.     The winds should be down by September (LSA Calstar) so possibly not until October...       I am going to ask just how far ahead we need to book it, since of course it depends on the cloud/wind forecast.

Needing to have a park staffer with us the whole event isn't great, and I presume after a while he'll get tired, but this could be good for a few dark sky nights that don't involve too much driving.

[Jeff Crilly]

Pick a third quarter night and leave when the moon rises.

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[Muriel Dulieu Holzer]

I would be interested to try the location. But midnight is a bit early for summer. 
That is only 3 hours of observing in total darkness, 2.5 hours counting packing if one has to be gone at midnight. 
November would allow for a more reasonable chunk of time with daylight saving and sunset at 5 pm. 

-Muriel

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[Peter Natscher]

Summer time is way too windy from afternoons and into the evenings at Dino Pt. Dino Pt. is located just below a geographical pass (Highway 152) that allows colder coastal air to be pulled into the hot central valley by daily lower air pressure in the valley. The hotter the valley, the higher the wind in the pass.

https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/san_luis_reservoir

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

As Peter said, Dinosaur Point is only useful for us between October and March. It's a wind tunnel other times of the year.

Brad, you might want to post the original note you got from Adam. My read of it is that he wants our help in running outreach events. We can't be there when he isn't.

[Brad Templeton]

Yes, I said all those things in the OP, I guess I didn't make them clear enough.  It's windy in summer (I offered the same wind link) and that him being there with us was a requirement.   All of which is why I titled it "sort of."

That said, it seems like an interesting proposition to arrange some viewing gatherings on some dark nights starting in September.    I suspect we will only get to do it a few times.  Though since he seems to feel part of his remit is to run public star nights, if he starts doing that, we might take advantage of them.  I've been teaching them about the need for clear skies, low winds, and a person at the gate who gets arrivals to turn off headlines, park away from the observers and hands out red flashlights.   Maybe he can learn that.

I'm trying to make him understand these will happen with short notice, only when the weather cooperates.     I've suggested to him that while summer is windy, this year we have new moon for the Perseids, and meteor watching works fine in modest wind.  But I warned him the real meteor show doesn't come until 1am so that might scare him off.   Also I may be in Spain because of course this new moon is going to be the best of all new moons there.

But I do think that it makes sense to take him up on his offer some time in the fall, if we see a dark night with clear skies and light winds, and ask if he would like to accompany us down to the docks until 12:30am.  I would presume there might be many who would do the trek because it's close.    Then we can keep doing that until he gets tired of accompanying us, but maybe by then he'll know how to do a dark sky night.

[Mark Wagner]

I'll add a bit, especially as Coe (my near home default) was mentioned.  Dino is at 550 feet elevation and downslope from the wind farm and pass.  Coe's overflow lot where I observe is 2609+ feet with perhaps no higher landform (height of Western coastal range) creating seeing  disturbance or cold down flow or pooling.  Coe is also quite dark to the east.

I've been to Dino (including Pacheco State Park) numerous times.  Maybe it's luck of the draw but I've found seeing to be rather persistent.

I do applaud the effort to reopen Dino as I know people do like it.  The more available sites the better.

[Mark Wagner]

I've found seeing > I've found dewing