Monrovia tonight, Dark sky observing

[Morris Jones]

Tonight should be great in Old Town Monrovia, we'll be there from about
7:00 'til 9:30 or so, showing a large gibbous moon and Jupiter.

A lot of people are curious about our dark sky observing nights.  We do 
often get together and trek out from under the Los Angeles light dome to 
see the real night sky and look at galaxies and nebulae that are 
impossible to see from within 100 miles of Los Angeles.

For a taste of what it's like, Jane and I both wrote observing reports 
from our last outing:

Mojo's story with some astrophotos:
http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/19/finally-autoguiding/

Jane's report:
http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/24/another-perfect-stargazing-night/

A little photo album of the setup:
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-10-17-chuckwalla/index.html

Admittedly our dark sky excursions are mostly for our own benefit. It's 
a great joy to enjoy the seclusion of the deserts around Southern 
California. We prefer our out-of-the-way location to the more crowded 
locations like Mt. Pinos. Besides that, our sky is darker.  :)

We travel about 160 miles from home in Monrovia out I-10 to a spot on 
BLM land south of Joshua Tree. Most of us make a night of it, catching a 
couple hours sleep as we can, and enjoy breakfast the next morning at 
Chiriaco Summit. Some will leave around midnight to make the trek back.

Even though we are certainly getting away from crowds, we don't mind 
having you join us for one of our excursions. It's amazing to discover 
what a modest telescope can do when you get away from the bright skies 
of Los Angeles. It's a treat to watch the Milky Way overhead, see 
satellites and meteors, and really see the constellations you didn't 
know were there.

We're often limited by the weather, and we'll cancel if it's cloudy, too 
windy, too hot, or otherwise inclement. The desert ground at our 
location is soft, and a couple of visitors have had bad luck getting 
stuck in the dirt. It's admittedly not a good place to get stuck. There 
are no facilities of any kind; Jane and I bring along a portable 
environmental toilet. And if you come you need to be prepared with 
layers of clothes, plenty of water, and preferably dim red flashlights 
to help you navigate.

With all that in mind, you should consider it. We're a friendly social 
group, and love sharing views through the telescopes. Our trips to the 
desert will not be announced here. We generally pick the Saturday night 
closest to new moon. That's a homework assignment.  :)

If you'd like to join us and try out that telescope in your closet on a 
real dark sky, send me a note that week and find out if we're going. 
It's a three-hour trip from Monrovia, and we generally try to arrive 
about an hour before sunset.

Think about it ...

Cheers,
Mojo
-- 
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://mojo.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers http://otastro.org
http://twitter.com/mojo_la