MnAstro Forums

The Clear Sky Chart and forecasts look great for tonight (Monday, May 5th). I am heading down to Cherry Grove. Gunnar Isberg will be joining in as well. All others are welcome!
FYI,
Brandon

Darn, I was in the garden last night!

Cory

How did it go for you?

Vic,

Thanks for asking. This past Monday we had three MAS members (Dave Falkner, Gunnar Isberg and myself) in attendance for the impromptu star party. The skies just kept getting better as the night progressed. However, it seems to me the neighbors to our west have added additional outdoor lighting to their garage area and they leave them on all night long. I definitely feel a permanent light wall/fence is now needed on that side of the property at Cherry Grove.

We went into the warming house to record our attanced and noticed one of the power outlets looked like it had experienced some type of a power surge. It appeared blackened. The red lights turned on so power is still going to the warming house. The outlet reminded me of what happened in my garage during a Christmas a few years ago. I had far too many outdoor Christmas lights all plugged into one outlet in my garage. At some point during that Christmas night the ground fault interrupter got tripped. Thank goodness or my house probably would have burned down. The "insides" of my garage power outlet had completely melted and had to be replaced. Close call!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that power outlet concern. I know nothing about electrical wiring other than my close call that I just described. Gunnar and I were just worried that something might have happened to the wiring in the warming house.

The drive down to Cherry Grove is always worth it to access the darker skies. I was thrilled a couple other members joined in that night. We were a few days prior to first quarter moon so we had to fight the moonlight early on in the evening. However, the seeing conditions just kept getting better as the night progressed.

I'm glad you got some good viewing in. We know about the new lights to the west. (See the discussion in CGO operations). The plug is ok just a little black. Since it's a GFI plug which are expensive, we haven't replaced it. It checks out ok. A hair dryer short did the deed.

Vic, I think I have some GFI outlets in a box here somewhere - I bought them to put in the garage of my house when I was adding a workbench, two houses back.... If I find them, I'll bring them down to CGO.