Mojave National Preserve dark sky astronomy

Last weekend was an adventurous one for several of us who spent two nights in the Mojave National Preserve. While Friday was a bit harrowing with high winds, Saturday was a great day for exploring the park, and observing galaxies in the dark sky at night. I have an article here about the trip: http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/04/26/snakes-tortoises-and-stars/ and a photo album with some cool tortoise video shot by Jane here: http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2009-04-25-mojave/ We had such a good time that we're contemplating doing it again next month. If you've never had much opportunity to get out from under the L.A. light dome, you might consider joining us. From Monrovia it's about 215 miles of easy drive. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, let me know as soon as you can. The new moon weekend in May is May 23-24. If there are enough interested parties, we can reserve the same group camping area. I'll follow this message with information about this coming weekend. Mojo -- Morris Jones Monrovia, CA http://www.whiteoaks.com Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la