[LVAS] Friday At Redstone

[David Blanchette]

Adding my two cents...  The sky did get darker after moonset, and the 
Vegas lightdome was okay.  But the entire sky still had a glow.  I 
suspect the high thin clouds we saw at sunset thinned even more, but 
never went away.

I tried a few 10 minute exposures, but the sky background (with moon) 
did a good job of washing things out.  Got a great shot of a 
commercial jet flying through a frame...

Fred left about 10:45, I wanted to see the sky after moonset, so I 
waited until 11:30 to start packing.  The temperature was about 
70.  At 11:33, I had a heat wave blow in.  In the space of about five 
minutes, the temperature went up to 75, and reached 77 after ten 
minutes.  There had been no breeze all night, and I couldn't feel any 
during the temperature change.  Really weird.

-- David

At 07:01 PM 9/27/2009, you wrote:

>Dave Blanchette and I met at Restone Friday night. Nobody else 
>showed, probably because it was a work day for most, but also 
>because of the moon and some crud in the air. However, we decided to 
>brave it and I must say, it was worth it.
>
>The moon was 1/4 phase and pretty much lit up the sky. It wouldn't 
>have been so bad except there was some high-altitude moisture and 
>possibly smoke crudding up the sky. The moon made the whole sky glow 
>because of that crud. However, just as I was packing up to go home, 
>the moon went down and it seemed to clear up.
>
>I spent most of the evening with fruitless searches. I couldn't see 
>ANY galaxies until almost 10. It took three attempts just to find 
>M-33. However, I did find a few new open star clusters I've never 
>seen before. I also managed to nail the NGC-474 group, though I 
>could barely see Pisces.
>
>Dave tried a few photos and got one of the Helix. However, he could 
>not see it visually.
>
>I wouldn't call the night a total wash because I did find a few 
>things, but for most of you, it probably would have been a bust.