Chesmont Astronomical Society

Satellite views indicate clearing skies behind the front currently moving through. Clearing will progress from west to east. The skies will likely be most 'settled' at our western sites. Currently, the CSC looks best for Piney Mountain (DS-3) and Tower City (DS-4). Moonset is 11:42 at sites with a perfect, no-relief horizon. With trees and mountains we will likely have moonless skies between 11:15 and 11:30. I know this is a worknight, but any photon starved observers are encouraged to post so a trip can be planned.

Clear skies,

Bob P.

Fred Josh and I decided to take a shot at a final session for August, 2010. Good call...

I arrived to find Milky Way visible from horizon to horizon before the sky was completely dark. Fred arrived a little after me, and Josh around 11. Observed through to about 4 AM when the sky started to shut down. Extremely good seeing coupled with excellent transparency made for a very productive session.

See attached for detailed observing report.

LouB

Had a decent session at Coyle last night. 20:30 arrival to 90% overcast. Was thinking it was going to be a waste of time. Went ahead and set up. By the time I was getting collimated. The clouds were breaking up. By the time I finished collimating and was ready to do 2-star I had 75% clear sky. Never totally clear, always seemed to be some part of the sky with clouds encroaching. But, that's the beauty of Coyle. Huge sky, lots of places to point the scope where the clouds aren't. Seeing was excellent all night. Had company early.

The 75th Stellafane Convention was a great one. For the second consecutive year, observing was possible on all three nights and on Friday night the conditions were excellent. While most of the celestial objects that I saw through various telescopes were familiar ones, I did happen to view three new Berkeley open clusters, thanks to Scott Ewart and his prize-winning 12.5" ATM split-ring equatorial Newtonian. I also witnessed a number of bright early Perseids.

...am actually looking hard at a potential observing run tonight (Lucky Friday 8/13/2010).

Was originally thinking it was going to be somewhere in the southwest. But after studying AccuWx Pro, NWS and the CSC's am actually starting to think Coyle for tonight.

Stay tuned for further updates...

LouB