It Never Rains In Southern California

As I was travelling to just outside Los Angeles to stay with my daughter and her new husband, I decided to contact one of the Astronomy clubs in the area to see if there was anything happening whilst I was there.
I received a friendly response from Alex McConahey, the President of Riverside Astronomical Society, and he promised trips to the Southern Californian observatories, which left my mouth watering.
Alex is a retired High School Principal, and is a great guy with a mountain of stories, and a droll manner.
We made arrangements for when I arrived, and I contacted him after a few days relaxing with family.
He picked me up and off we went to Mount Wilson.
It's at 6,000 feet, at the end of a long and absolutely stunning drive into the San Gabriel mountains, with thousand foot drops all around.
The facility has a number of telescopes apart from the 100 inch, and is set in beautiful woodland, lizards and squirrels everywhere and oak trees with acorns three times the size of ours.
The scope itself is enormous.
However, the overriding sense is one of history.
This is where the speed of light was calculated by Mitchelson, and where Hubble,who worked at Mt. Wilson,discovered that our galaxy was not the universe, but only one of millions of similar island universes.
From there we went into downtown Los Angeles, and visited the Griffiths Observatory and Planetarium, which overooks the city with stunning panoramic views against the backdrop of the Hollywood sign. It's also famous for appearing in James Dean's "Rebel Without A Cause".
And if that wasn't enough, my trip to Palomar a few days later was again one of the best days of my life.
I was again with Alex, and Richard Garcia, a Palomar guide and RAS member who came specially just to show me the observatory.
I got the "insider" tour, got into the control rooms, got to touch the huge monster itself and see the Cassegrain cage, the re-silvering area, the basement and the huge screws that actually polar align the 200" in case an earthquake upsets it!
It was just too awe-inspiring for words, as I've loved that telescope since I was 9, and to be actually standing underneath staring at it was just incredible.
I then attended the RAS's Star Party, and I had the best night I could have hoped for.
Great guys all, the day started with a rocket launch of "Elvis" from a dry lake bed in searing desert heat. Elvis is the latest attempt to have a rocket go supersonic, and it reached a height of 4400 feet before falling back to earth...unfortunately for the last time...as the parachute failed to deploy.
We'd a barbecue next, and as evening came on the site was filled with a couple of dozen scopes and imaging set-ups all ready for darkness, with cloudless skies and a temperature of of about 28C as it fell.
I was given Capella, the RAS's 22" dob, to play with, along with Smokey, the Korean War veteran who is the RAS's oldest member.
From then on the night was a mixture of memories, a gibbous Venus in the sunset, a huge Jupiter about 45 degrees above the horizon, a gorgeous Lagoon and Trifid Nebula, seen through an O3 filter, with clear and amazing nebulosity filling the field of view.
There was all the stuff we miss, Sagittarius and a full Scorpio, Cetus, Sculptor Aquarius and a Pisces heading towards the zenith. M22,M28 and other globulars too many to count, and finally the object I'd waited for....the great Sculptor galaxy, which was invisible at Charles Messier's latitude and missed out on a classification. Only M31 is bigger in my experience.
And did I mention that I got to use the new Ethos 13mm and 7mm eyepieces, and the even newer Ethos 17mm?
As the Televue rep is a member of the RAS, we got free usage, and utterly stunning they are.
I had to quit at 2.30am as I was exhausted but elated, and by then Orion had risen, lying sideways with Rigel and Betelgeuse at an equal height, Gemini below them to the west, and a skewed inverted Taurus,horns pointing downwards, looking bizarre to my eyes.
An incredible night, never to be forgotten.

: blink:
What an absolutely amazing experience that must have been!

Amazing stuff their Eamonn, a 22" scope on Sagittarius at that latitude must have been fab. :ohmy:

Fabulous report Eamonn - well done. You have us all drooling...........

Thanks guys, now I'm back, I'll have a shed load of photos up this week.

Here are a few to start:

The 100 inch Hooker scope at Mount Wilson, featuring the Hubble Chair.

Unbelievably, the Telrad can be seen affixed to the 100 inch scope

The imposing facade of the 200 inch at Mount Palomar

At the old controls of the 200" at Palomar
The 22 " dob loaned to me by Riverside Astronomy Society

The beautiful sunset in the high Mojave desert