{"id":27115,"date":"2019-11-24T09:28:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T19:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27115"},"modified":"2019-11-24T14:33:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T00:33:45","slug":"a-foggy-night-at-ka%ca%bbohe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27115","title":{"rendered":"A Foggy Night at Ka\u02bbohe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Foggy?  Well?  Mostly the skies were the beautiful dark Mauna Kea skies we enjoy.  Mostly.  The fog did flirt with us much of the night, rolling over hard for about half an hour, blotting out the stars for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=27118\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/CJ89-02-19327-DC-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"The Phelps family enjoys the skies at Ka\u02bbohe\" class=\"wp-image-27118\"\/><\/a><figcaption>The Phelps family enjoys the skies at Ka\u02bbohe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite a dire forecast for moisture on the mauna, the weather at Ka\u02bbohe was quite nice aside from a bit of fog. The big telescopes atop the mauna were closed for much of the night in fog and even a little light snow, while we were enjoying the stars in the eyepiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were ten folks who drove up the mauna to enjoy the night&#8230; Maureen, Cathy, Andrew, John, Cliff, and myself.  Plus all four members of the Phelps family with their own telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The view after sunset was stunning, <a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27106\">Jupiter and Venus in a close pair<\/a> over the summit of Hual\u0101lai deep in the bright zodiacal light.  The Milky Way arched over the northern sky from Sagittarius to Cassiopeia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8216;scopes jumped about, as usual starting with old favorites and sharing the views with everyone.  We stopped by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?M31\">Andromeda<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC884\">Double Cluster<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=M11\">Wild Duck Cluster<\/a>, and of course the planets.  Saturn is still high enough to be beautiful in the &#8216;scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was about nine when the fog rolled over us from the north, coming around the mauna.  It swallowed the stars until only the few brightest could be seen, then nothing.  I put the covers on the &#8216;scope and threw a blanket over it to keep the mist off and joined the others to chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fog lasted over half an hour&#8230;  No problem.  The group gathered around Maureen&#8217;s scope to talk story and exchange snacks.  There were crackers and cheese, home made chocolate chip cookies, macadamias and cashews, everything just gathered on the table to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=27117\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/CJ89-05-19327-DC-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"Observers break down the telescopes at the end of the evening\" class=\"wp-image-27117\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Observers break down the telescopes at the end of the evening<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually the fog did clear to leave clear starry skies above.  The mists remained in the area, a layer below us in the valley towards Hual\u0101lai, a large mass in the Saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  The fog never came again, just hovered, visible in the starlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the fog cleared I started observing seriously, finding and making notes on galaxies in Pisces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC7428\">NGC7428<\/a> Small 2&#8242;, round, bright nucleus <\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC7541\">NGC7451<\/a> Good sized 3&#8217;x1&#8242;, elongated southeast-northwest, no obvious core, NGC7537 visible 3&#8242; southwest<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?NGC7537\">NGC7537<\/a> Small, bright, no core visible<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=R+Lep\">R Lep<\/a> Bright, coppery orange not red, near maximum?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Around midnight flashes of lightning could be seen over Hual\u0101lai, thunderstorm out to sea past Kona illuminated by the flashes. I kept on, making notes on another dozen galaxies in Cetus&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC596\">NGC596<\/a> Good sized 3&#8242;, bright, bright core, the 5.8 magnitude star HR448 at the edge of the field 7&#8242; east<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC600\">NGC600<\/a> Very faint, a low surface brightness object, no notable core<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkerview.com\/scripts\/query.php?ObjID=NGC871\">NGC871<\/a> Quite faint, small, elongated north-south, the 8.6 magnitude star HD14108 is 5&#8242; south, cannot see NGC870 2&#8242; southwest<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It was nearly one am when I decided to call it, the others having left well before.  As I put away the gear I heard pigs nearby.  Something moving through the grass with small hooves, with a couple grunts to confirm the unseen intruders. Neither pig nor human seemed inclined to meet as we went our separate ways into the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foggy? Well? Mostly the skies were the beautiful dark Mauna Kea skies we enjoy. Mostly. The fog did flirt with us much of the night, rolling over hard for about half an hour, blotting out the stars for a while. Despite a dire forecast for moisture on the mauna, the weather at Ka\u02bbohe was quite &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27115\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Foggy Night at Ka\u02bbohe&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[331],"tags":[2318,60,2700],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/CJ89-02-19327-DC.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27115"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27132,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27115\/revisions\/27132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}