Observing at Mt. Frazier
by:
Dave Flynn
Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina)
Despite somewhat terrifying weather forecasts earlier in the week (60 mph winds) a bunch of us decided to take the chance and headed up to our usual observing location up near Mt. Frazier last Saturday. I met Glenn, Page, Christine and Lavere up there for what turned out to be a spectacular, and surprisingly not that cold, evening. A large contingent from the Kern Astronomical Society along with several other regulars made for a nice crowd with lots of comraderie and some great observing.
I finally got that Comet! For those of you at the January meeting where I talked about comets I had expressed my frustration at the weather keeping me from imaging this (at the time) early morning sight. As you can see, it's still visible in the constelation Camelopardalis near Polaris. You can barely see the two tails in this image. I have a special treat for those of you attending Friday's meeting.
Since sundown was at 5:30 we had a wonderfully long observing session. Most folks had left by midnight. Around 3am the temperature had probably dropped into the 30s and the wind finally picked up enough to make imaging pointless so I called it a night and crawled into the RV for the duration.
What a great night!
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