[Lvas] Sawmill Trailhead Report

[Rob]

Fred,

I'm sorry it ending up being a short night for you.  I'll check into the 
Ranger incident and find out who we need to talk to about using that site.

As for Red Rock.  We had another good night.  There were about 110 
people including our folks there last night.  I'm guessing we had 10 to 
15 scopes there.  David even had the monster set up and people enjoyed 
looking through the largest telescope they had ever seen.  Seeing got 
better as the night progressed.  Most of the public was gone by 10:30 
and that's when the seeing really settled down.  The Cub Scouts and 
Scouts got to see things they had only imagined.  I'll be sending them 
some images of the objects they saw for their report.  Quite a few new 
members made it out last night along with some old members we haven't 
seen in a while.  Anyway, it was a good night at Red Rock - we could 
even see the Milky Way as it stretched from Sagittarius up through 
Cygnus.  As it got closer to Cassiopea it got wiped out by the sky glow 
of Vegas.  But some folks had never even seen that much of it until last 
night.

Take care.  Hope to see you at Cathedral Gorge.  Cindy and I will be at 
Belmont next weekend for our outing up there.

Rob



Fred Rayworth wrote:
> All,
>  
> Just got back from Sawmill Trailhead after being kicked out by a 
> hostile park ranger.
>  
> Just after dark, around 9 pm, a truck drove into the area and a couple 
> of people yelled for the driver to turn off the lights. We had no idea 
> it was a park ranger. There was a statement attributed to her that we 
> had no right to ask anyone to dim their lights. Then I heard the 
> ranger yelling something. Someone later said she told us to get out as 
> she was closing the park in 45 minutes. I also heard someone say that 
> she was just some lady and not a real park ranger.
>  
> Well... at 10:00, the truck returned and the park ranger turned on her 
> brights and aimed them at all the telescopes. Then I heard her yelling 
> that she'd told us to get out and was locking the gate. Someone, I 
> don't know who, approached her to ask why we were being kicked out, 
> and next thing I heard was the lady screaming and threatening to taser 
> the individual.
>  
> No doubt she wanted us out. I packed up and was out of there by 10:15.
>  
> I am sending in an official complaint to the Toyabe National Forest 
> Park Service. Though whoever talked to her maybe should have just 
> agreed with her, she did not in the least act professional.
>  
> Now, on to the observing, what little we were able to do.
>  
> The sky was clearly (ha ha) hazy from the smoke in Calee' fornia. 
> There was a mild breeze that got cold really quick, but it was not 
> enough to make my eyes water. I took an early look at Jupiter but it 
> was just a blurry gas bag. However, I caught M-57 and it looked pretty 
> nice, being straight up. Didn't see the central star, but the 
> conditions were not really ideal for that. Then I went to M-27, our 
> observing goal for the month, and saw quite the bit of detail, which 
> I'll put in my observing report.
>  
> I found a few other things but just as I was getting going, the whole 
> ranger thing started and I had to give up early. Wish the night hadn't 
> been spoiled by what transpired, but it did.
>  
> So, I guess we can cross Sawmill off the list unless we can get 
> special permission to be there after hours. Funny, we went there 
> several times last year with no problems, and even as late as this 
> May, and never even saw a park ranger. All of a sudden, it's closed 
> at  10PM. The policy might have changed, but I never heard an 
> explanation from that park ranger. In fact, I didn't want to get 
> anywhere near her!
>  
> I hope the Red Rocks thing went better than our little excursion!
>  
> Fred
>  
>
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