OI: Pinnacles West, Thursday, March 12

[mtoma...@outlook.com]

I am planning on an early evening stargazing outing at Pinnacles National Park west entrance parking lot this Thursday evening, March 12.  I’ve already told this group that this venue is available to the pubic for stargazing again.  I suppose that I should verify that for myself.  :-)

I already know of two others who will be joining me.  Hoping for more.

As of this writing, the Astrospheric forecast looks promising.

Mark T.

[Peter Natscher]

Three Wx sources forecast approaching high level cloudiness by midnight Thursday night.  Tonight is the go-to night to get out, totally clear.  It now doesn't get dark until 8:40p so that will leave you only three hours of best sky before poorer transparency.

[Mark Wagner]

I agree tonight is *the* night for the near term.  I'm already packing, observing list in hand.

[mtoma...@outlook.com]

Peter, thank you for your input concerning Thursday's weather forecast and advice.

Alas, I am not such a discerning observer.  I'll be happy if I can get two hours of reasonably dark/clear skies.  I have other obligations for this evening.  (And Friday.  And Saturday.)

Mostly, I'll be there on Thursday to perform a field test and demonstration of my set-up:

• New Moon Telescopes Dobsonian telescope
• Astro Devices' Nexus DSC Pro digital setting circles and system hub
• Astro Devices' "StarDrive" go-to system*
• Astro Devices' Nexus eFinder plate-solving finder**

Two, perhaps three others will be joining me.

Also, I'll be there to re-familiarize myself with the west entrance parking lot in anticipation of returning on March 21st for a much more serious and lengthy observing session ("Messier Marathon" with others in the Monterey/Santa Cruz area).

Mark T.

*This system is so new (and possibly still undergoing final tweaks) that it is not yet promoted at the Astro Devices web site.  Thus, no link to any webpage here.

**Actually, the "eFinder" that I'll be using is a clone of Astro-Devices' commercial version.  This clone was created by a very clever northern CA astronomy enthusiast, kindly loaned to me for field testing.  Initial testing looks very promising.