ORACLE OBSERVATORY Last updated: 4 April 2005

2 April 2005
The forecast for this Saturday night varied from "partly cloudy" to "mostly clear" so I decided to be optimistic and drive the eight hours to Oracle with my new ETX-105PE w/UHTC. When I arrived the skies were mostly clear (a beautiful blue) with some high cirrus in the west. Here's the set up for this trip:

However, as sunset approached those cirrus clouds became thicker and more widespread. But a nice "sun-dog" was visible to the right of the Sun (along with a jet contrail):

By the time the Sun actually set the clouds in the west were very thick and very little color appeared in the western sky:

The night was spent under mostly cloudy skies (so much for that forecast!). I never opened up the telescope. When I wasn't in the tent listening to my iPod mini (the Bob Hope Show and an episode of X Minus One) I was outside looking around at the land in my nightscope. I did manage to see a couple of critters!

I once again plan to take the new ETX-105PE w/UHTC on the next trip, tentatively planned for 28 April, weather permitting. This trip will also include a follow-up visit to Kitt Peak, which we last visited in November 2002. Stay tuned...

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