The Mount Wilson Observatory

Sat. 25th July Up with dawn and rolled up to the Mnt Wilson observatory. Did a piece reflecting about the Ray Comfort discussion from the ridge with a great overview of the valley. Spent the morning kicking around the observatory. Had a chat with some of the ground staff. Eventually found that the Hooker scope had wifi and power! ;-) score! Uploaded the reflections vid and did a spot of editing. While doing this a tour came through and I picked up with them. Got talking to the guide who introduced me to some of the astronomers on site. Had a chat about the potential plausibility of redoing some of Hubbles work on cephids in Andromeda. Picked up with a guy called Olmar who was using a 16 in scope on site (apparently given to the observatory by Meade) and only in semi-regular use. The Comet impact on Jupiter was going to be visible about midnight, and we teamed up (me with the webcam, him with the big ass scope). Spent the afternoon trying to get it all to work on the early moon (but very hard due to virtually no contrast). Later it turned out a group from Carnegie Mellon Alumni were coming through and using the 60 in. The Alumni were a fairly social, and well educated lot. Quite an array of astros and non-astros. Did what I could to help out, but was getting some fairly chilly vibes from one of the woman organizers. Shortly after 11ish I was the first to identify the impact site. When it was quiet we set up the web cam and shot a load of footage. Without the marine layer here, the skies are INCREDIBLY light polluted. Its like walking around under a full moon. During this time I had taken a look through the 60 in scope at various deep sky objects, but was frankly unimpressed. I have had nights under velvets skies with a 30 in scope, and the 4 fold increase in light simply didnt make up for the shitty sky glow. Shortly after midnight Olmar decided it was quitting time for him (he had the long drive down the dark windy mountain road ahead of him still. On the way out I stopped off at the 60in to take a look at the impact site. The image was stunning. Only shot about 30s of video at the eyepiece (should have done 4 times as much) but it was definitely one of those WOW/ OMG type moments. I had made it clear that I would put it on youtube, but hadnt told them that I had a significant channel (till after I had this incredible footage). After that it was like walking around in a dream for a bit, you know the did that really just happen? type moment. Packed up the car and thought about setting up in the car lot. But decided against it. Headed down to the main road car lot and kipped down for the night. Bed about 2ish.