Last night was really cloudy. It was kind of sad seeing all the telescopes with their covers on after dark. The whole field was kind of like a telescope morgue.
Maybe it was a good thing though because it did give me a chance to catch up on some long overdue rest. Turns out the few who did stay up the whole night never got more than a few teaser "sucker holes" of openings in the clouds.
Today I visited the vendor booths and got my copies of the Night Sky Observer's Guide volumes 1 and 2 signed by the authors, Glenn Sanner and Bob Kepple. They are both great guys and just happen to be members of the Huachuca Astronomy Club (it's funny that I had to bring the books all the way to Texas to get them signed instead of just taking them to a meeting).
I just got out of attending some daytime programs. First was "Cataclysmic Variables" by Steve Robinson. I'm very interested in pursuing a similar program of monitoring variable stars with my CCD setup and submitting them to AAVSO, so that was a very interesting session. Steve has a nice website at http://www.highenergyastro.homestead.com.
The second session was "TSP Advanced Observing Program - Nebulae" by Larry Mitchell. I'm simply amazed at some of the objects that amateurs are finding. Some of these would be quite challenging and require a lot of observer skill (not to mention aperture).
The last forum I sat in on was "Drawing at the Eyepiece" by Richard Jakiel. He really had some nice drawings and gave some excellent tips for sketching what you observe. Larry and I had lunch with Richard a couple of days ago and he was quite interesting. He will also be tonight's main session lecturer.
The clouds are still here, and the prediction is now for increasing cloudiness. There is a long line of clouds coming in from the South. So we will have to see about what the night brings in terms of observing opportunities. I'm hoping for the best.
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