Tonight should be great in Old Town Monrovia, we'll be there from about 7:00 'til 9:30 or so, showing a large gibbous moon and Jupiter. A lot of people are curious about our dark sky observing nights. We do often get together and trek out from under the Los Angeles light dome to see the real night sky and look at galaxies and nebulae that are impossible to see from within 100 miles of Los Angeles. For a taste of what it's like, Jane and I both wrote observing reports from our last outing: Mojo's story with some astrophotos: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/19/finally-autoguiding/ Jane's report: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/2009/10/24/another-perfect-stargazing-night/ A little photo album of the setup: http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-10-17-chuckwalla/index.html Admittedly our dark sky excursions are mostly for our own benefit. It's a great joy to enjoy the seclusion of the deserts around Southern California. We prefer our out-of-the-way location to the more crowded locations like Mt. Pinos. Besides that, our sky is darker. :) We travel about 160 miles from home in Monrovia out I-10 to a spot on BLM land south of Joshua Tree. Most of us make a night of it, catching a couple hours sleep as we can, and enjoy breakfast the next morning at Chiriaco Summit. Some will leave around midnight to make the trek back. Even though we are certainly getting away from crowds, we don't mind having you join us for one of our excursions. It's amazing to discover what a modest telescope can do when you get away from the bright skies of Los Angeles. It's a treat to watch the Milky Way overhead, see satellites and meteors, and really see the constellations you didn't know were there. We're often limited by the weather, and we'll cancel if it's cloudy, too windy, too hot, or otherwise inclement. The desert ground at our location is soft, and a couple of visitors have had bad luck getting stuck in the dirt. It's admittedly not a good place to get stuck. There are no facilities of any kind; Jane and I bring along a portable environmental toilet. And if you come you need to be prepared with layers of clothes, plenty of water, and preferably dim red flashlights to help you navigate. With all that in mind, you should consider it. We're a friendly social group, and love sharing views through the telescopes. Our trips to the desert will not be announced here. We generally pick the Saturday night closest to new moon. That's a homework assignment. :) If you'd like to join us and try out that telescope in your closet on a real dark sky, send me a note that week and find out if we're going. It's a three-hour trip from Monrovia, and we generally try to arrive about an hour before sunset. Think about it ... Cheers, Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://mojo.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers http://otastro.org http://twitter.com/mojo_la