Doggone Clouds

[Skylook123]

Here in Tucson, Arizona, we are accustomed to warm and clear opportunities to observer. Lately, cold and clouds are the norm.

Last night we tried a Christmas Eve tradition. For several days around the winter solstice, the sunset behind Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is visible from sixty miles away from a highway pull off on the Mount Lemmon Highway, just past the 8 mile point. For the last four years we've been joining a group of photographers, imagers, and other observers to view the sun setting behind and illuminating the whole array of telescopes on the ridge sixty miles away. All weather reports promised clear skies until two hours after sunset. The gathering at the base of the road at a McDonalds restaurant was set up, and we started up the highway.

About six of us tried, but we were skunked by the entering clouds behind KPNO. Three weather sites said clear until 7 PM, but the IR Satellite animation looked all day like it would roll in around 3 PM, and sure enough, driving down from Marana and sitting at McDonalds, the clouds to the west were building. At the site, everyone, including my wife Susan, set up but I could see how things were going and just helped Susan with the 90 mm ShortTube and direct projection into a Canon Powershot 100 that could do movies. At 4:15, KPNO and the whole ridge line were visible with clouds growing behind, the sun was bright but already somewhat blocked and distorted, and then ground fog started growing from the bottom. By the time the solar disk got about two diameters above KPNO, it was indistinguishable.

The good news was that I modified Susan's setup to remove the star diagonal, add an extender, and the straight through 90 mm was rigid and worked fine for Earth based objects. We even remembered to mount the camera upside down to invert the image, but all for naught, except a very pleasant group to hang out with.

I was so proud of myself for not setting up all of the imaging equipment, and even prouder watching Susan master a professional camera tripod she forgot I had bought for her a year ago to do landscapes and close-up macros, adding the scope with the special interface, and adapting to the Orion SteadyPix Deluxe Camera Mount to butt the Powershot lens against the eyepiece for projection. Now she says she wants to use her Canon EOS T3i DSLR with our 10" SCT next year, since I have already gotten her all the photography essential adaptation over the years, and she's used it for projected and prime focus on planets several times with her film EOS Rebel SLR.

Great group of folks with whom to pass the time. Thus went Day 1 of retirement.

[Special K]

Hi SkyLook, by a strange twist of fate we had a few good nights observing here in the UK....must have been our turn for a break in the clouds!

Sounds like a nice tradition and sure next time will be cloudless at the Peak. Enjoy those Desert Skies!!!