Re: (SNES) O.R. June 5, 2002

[Albireo54@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/8/02 3:49:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Timetrav2@webtv.net writes:

> Although we didn't know it at the time, smoke from forest fires in
> Canada were moving in on us to make observing difficult

Hi Barry,

I'm glad that you guys were able to get out to FDO despite the smoke problem 
- boy, there's always something, isn't there?! If it isn't the moon it's a 
freak cloud bank - or a circus or a blues festival!

Down here in the "sunshine state" I've had precious few opportunities to 
enjoy the newly visible 14 degrees of sky that's open to me at this latitude, 
as we've had at least some rain each and every day for the past three weeks. 
Something like 20 to 23 inches in all, from reports I've seen. Well, at least 
there's no more drought in FL!

When it has cleared I've found that the skies are very stable here - we're a 
long way from any jet stream activity. And I'm far enough north of the Tampa 
metro area that the skies are actually a bit darker than what I had in 
Webster. I haven't scouted out the beach sites available on the Gulf of 
Mexico yet (20 minutes west of me), but when I do I expect them to be VERY 
dark, at least in the western half of the sky dome. 

I also have spent a lot of time cruising through the skies of Ophiucus over 
the years - it's huge constellation with lots to offer; fine doubles, 
clusters, globulars, planetaries, and of course Barnard's star - which has 
been fun to track over the many years I've been observing it.

I hope that the skies cooperate up there for the balance of the summer and 
that everything goes well at FDO. I will be down here for a bit longer, it 
appears, but look forward to a return to southern New England before too 
long.

Good luck and good seeing to all!
Doug
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