| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 1/17/2008 | 16:05/22:45 | 28/? | 1 | 2 | ||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | Viewed many Globular clusters that have come into season as well as a number of galaxies. | ||||
| Tom | ||||||
| Bud | Projects: | None | ||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Snow about 5-1/2 feet. | |||||
| Had to dig down to get to the door. Viewing very bad, sky wet and unstable. | ||||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | Moon | |
| 2/8/2008 | 15:30/23:30 | 30/22 | 5 | 5 | ||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | Six open clusters. | ||||
| Tom | Projects: | None | ||||
| CCD Images: | Supernova Sn2008Q NGC 1200, Horsehead nebula in Orion. Identified as B33. | |||||
| See Supernova in Projects Page. | ||||||
| Comments: | Snow a good 8 feet deep. | |||||
| Had to dig again to get to the door. | ||||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 2/11/2008 | 16:20/00:20 | 64/42 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | Bud worked the 14". Moon, Mars, Saturn, Orion Nebula. | ||||
| Tom | Projects: | None | ||||
| Bud | CCD Images: | Sky was to unstable for imaging. | ||||
| Comments: | Snow pack down to about 7 feet deep. | |||||
| Dug out more in front of door. Sky wet and unstable at 20:00. | ||||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 3/4/2008 | 16:05/11:20 | 4 | 4 | |||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | |||||
| Tom | Projects: | None | ||||
| Bud | CCD Images: | None | ||||
| Comments: | Snow pack down to about 5 feet deep and difficult to walk through. | |||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 4/8/2008 | 16:30/00:30 | /29 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | See Phil's and Tom's observing logs. | ||||
| Projects: | None | |||||
| CCD Images: | See Images in Projects Page. | |||||
| Comments: | Sky was cloudy in the beginning but cleared up by sunset. See Phil's and Tom's observing logs. | |||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 5/5/2008 | 16:16/18:00 | 53/58 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | None | ||||
| Projects: | None | |||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Went to
observatory to acquire dimensions required for a new support
bracket for the 2000 mm camera's tangent arm assembly. I need to support the camera so true North/South adjustments can be made. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 5/8/2008 | 19:20/22:10 | ~62/~50 | 3 | 4 | 1st Quarter | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | Moon, Saturn, several galaxies in Leo and Virgo. See Phil's and Bud's observing logs. | ||||
| Bud | Projects: | None | ||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Crescent moon bright and caused sky glow. Sky extremely steady and dry. | |||||
| Would have been excellent viewing after moon set. | ||||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/1/2008 | 19:00/01:30 | 55/42 | 4 | 4/III | None | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | See Tom's log for the night's activities. | ||||
| Tom | Projects: | None | ||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Trip intended mostly to check
out the observatories, and do some clean up. Temperature great,
a bit humid, which made it feel colder as the night progressed. All is ship shape. Two visitors arrive: Harry Hoopes, director of the Sierra College astronomy department, and Dick Morasso retired director and instrumental in the Nightwatch building plan. After they left I retired the 22 and went over to Tom's Cielo Claro Observatory for a night of viewing. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/4/2008 | 10:00/014:30 | ? | ||||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | |||||
| Projects: | Tangent arm. | |||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Needed to get some more dimensions. Straightened up a bit. Made
list of things to do, and what was needed for some general maintenance. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/9/2008 | 18:00/22:00 | 68/42 | Good III | 3 | Few Days | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | None with 22 | ||||
| Tom | Projects: | Visual observations with Tom. | ||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Opened
the observatory. Started up the 22 and various computers. Gets
the bugs out, and the lubricant in the harmonic drive circulating. A busy night on site. George, the Sierra College astronomy department technician arrives approx. 19:00. The class approx. 20:30. Alvaro, a college instructor, opened the college 14 inch observatory for the class. Davis, the local astronomy group's observatory director was up. He spent the night hunting down obscure galaxies. Normally the local club only uses the site for star parties. Davis though is quite active doing serious project work. Closed up the observatory and went over to spend the rest of the night with Tom doing visual observing. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/17/2008 | 09:30/19:00 | 65/73 | Deep Blue | ********* | ********* | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | None | ||||
| Projects: | Observatory | |||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Work day at the observatory today. Weed ate (weed eater) front walk and majority of Northern graveled area. Chain saw would not runn sufficient to cut anything. Kept dying. Did some painting. Sprayed some grass. Bumble Bees are out, did not want to spray their flowers that are in bloom now. Sprayed some wasp nests. They can go elsewhere. Spent remainder of day with new bracket. Oh well.... back to the shop! At the shop I revised the bracket by welding an ear to the North edge, added new set of holes. Relocated Tel-Rad mounting plate. Will return tomorrow and remount the eight inch camera bracket and the camera. Think it will now be all right. Saw was too lean. Made adjustments. Will cut dead stumps also tomorrow. Tom sprayed Round Up last week around Observatory C. Worked fairly well. Will burn dead material in a few days. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/18/2008 | 10:00/14:30 | |||||
| Phil | Visual Observations: | None | ||||
| Projects: | Tangent arm & bracket | |||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | New
bracket is going to be just fine. The 8 inch camera will be
closer to the 22 tube which will reduce the field rotation. Brought bracket back to add a plate. Finish cutting out the dead wood, some more weed eating. A plane did some touch and goes. Weather great. A four-some out traveling had a picnic. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 6/21/2008 | 13:30/20:00 | 68/73 | Cloudy | Poor | 87% Waning | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | None | ||||
| Projects: | Observatory work. | |||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: |
Arrived to a cool day with a slight breeze. Mostly
cloudy, but not humid. About 14:00 there was the roll of heavy thunder. Time to close the shutter in case there is a power failure. 15:45 it begins to rain ... heavy drops about the size of peas pelted the dome. Nightwatch is as close to heaven I'll ever get. A small party lead by Sierra College instructor Al arrives. The barbe was fired up to produce steak and great Spanish sausage. Finishing out my plate was fine potato salad and drink. Another couple arrives. Lester sets up his new Celestron eleven inch for a test drive. An eight inch was set up with a Thousand Oaks solar filter. May be, to my recollection, the first time to see the sun's surface absolutely devoid of any markings. Finally the work part. Set the eight inch camera up. The bracket after three attempts is going to work very well. Now to collimate the eight to the twenty-two. |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| 7/19/2008 | 19:20/22:45 | 75/60 | 2 | 4 IV | 95% Full, Waning Gibbous | |
| Phil | Visual Observations: | A few bright objects for the new viewers. M13, M57, Jupiter and Saturn. | ||||
| Tom | Projects: | None | ||||
| CCD Images: | None | |||||
| Comments: | Visited
the observatory this night to host the fire fighters using the
site for their bivouac. There were six helicopters with buckets for lifting water to the fire. This fire is about ten miles South East of Nightwatch, and has burned about 19,000 acres so far. When asked if I was worried, my reply was .. why? ... the fire department's 50 foot away. Stacy of the Forrest Service was heads up on this one. The moon unfortunately rose shortly after the sun's setting. But, it was not until the moon was about 25 degrees above the horizon did it begin to play on the sky born particulate. The sky was a rare rock solid. Although the particulate was very light, it did wash out the dimmer stars of M13 .. Great details of Jupiter's surface and Saturn's ring shadow. Temperature was great .. so were the people. See picture of the fire crew. "Fire Season". |
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| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| Visual Observations: | ||||||
| Projects: | ||||||
| CCD Images: | ||||||
| Comments: | ||||||
| DATE | TIME-IN/OUT | Temp- IN/OUT | CLARITY | SEEING | MOON | |
| Visual Observations: | ||||||
| Projects: | ||||||
| CCD Images: | ||||||
| Comments: | ||||||
