[Lvas] Sawmill Trailhead Report

Sun Aug 16 08:05:57 PDT 2009

Rob,

Cool report! Sounds like you all had a better night of it than we did.

Fred

> Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:47:26 -0700
> From: scopegeek at gmail.com
> To: lvas at lvlug.org
> Subject: Re: [Lvas] Sawmill Trailhead Report
> 
> 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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