Santa Cruz Astronomy Club

Headed up to QH a little early not knowng what to expect weather-wise. Down to the southwest of La Selva there were thunderstorms building and at QH there were low fog-like clouds blowing in from the northwest. It didn't look promising, but Bill said that Scott's Valley was nice and clear. As the Sun was dipping behind the western hills a cold wind came up and we all bundled up in our cold weather suits. Once the Sun was fully set the wind died down and the temp. was quite pleasant.

We had five scopes set up. Ron, Chris, Bill, Jeff and our hostess/docent, Lee, had an Orion refractor that had been donated to the park. Even before it got dark we had about an hour of Venus viewing. it was just above the tress in the west so it was bouncing around a lot but still a great view of the crescent. The Moon was about halfway past the Meridian an offered some outstanding views along the Terminator, but we had to wait for the occasional high cloud to pass by. Craig would have enjoyed the view.

Once it got dark we had some decent views of Mars and Saturn as well. The transparency wasn't all that good, and overall I'd give the evening a 2 out of 5. There were a lot of very high, thin clouds covering most of the sky.

As far as guests went - there were three young ladies from the local area around sunset and two other couples stopped by a little later for a short time.

Chris had to bail out early so he could be at the airshow early Sat. morning and the rest of us took off around 10:00. Next up is the Venus Transit on June 5th, which should be great as long as the fog and clouds stay away... :)