Bob, Cari, and I went out to the observatory at El Rito last night for their monthly star party. Despite ominous weather reports of partly cloudiness and a bad-looking radar image, the sky was more or less totally clear. The problem was the wind. Even with the tripod at its minimum height, the optical tube assembley was acting like a big sail and the result was images that danced around by as much as an arc minute. Not condusive to long-exposure photography.

The club still hadn't gotten the alignment pins back from Meade for their 16" SCT in the dome, so it wasn't useful for photography either. The good news on that front was that, apparently, before the scope went in for service, the pier was properly aligned. Because the pier hasn't been disturbed, it shouldn't require adjustment once they get the fork properly mounted to the pier.

We did some visual stuff and tried to work out the kinks on a new polar alignment procedure. Packed up and were home by 11.