Iron Mountain...

Hiked to Iron Mountain, last Sunday.. Its been a while, I have been for a hike.. so Iron mountain was refreshing..

Approx 20 mins drive from home, next to Poway, 5.6 miles round-trip and 2500 ft high (1000ft gain).. so it was an easy hike.. still we returned with some body achings :) !!

The long hill range on east indeed gives the feeling why wildfires can become so scary.. Small patches of burnt dark-colored land, next to our trail, are indeed reminiscences of witch creek fire from '07.

From top of the peak, the view is marvelous.. 360 deg panoramic view of SD county. With clear sky and sunny day, anything from Pt Loma on west, Tijuana on south, San Vincente reservoir on south-east to Ramona on east was visible. Also QC bldg AQ was an easy catch thru binocs. The never-ending pacific ocean on west was simply breath-taking.. I wondered how the skydiving view from 15000ft would be..

Back to pavellion within 3 hrs :) !!

Can We? Yes.. We Can !!

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

- Barack Hussein Obama

New Eyes..

On Diwali, bought a new telescope. time to upgrade from 6" bazooka to 10" canon. I was using Jon's 10" dob for a while, but now.. bought my own... Orion Intelliscope XT10 Dobsonian.

Mirror: 254mm, 10"
Focal Length: f/4.7, 1200mm

I have realized that, for a beginner, lil bit experienced, the dob with 10" aperture is perfect. It can fit all my needs and will serve me well atleast for couple of years. More objects I learn abt, dob always gives me a glimpse... More magnification I put, dob always show me details.. atleast to keep me satisfied.

After learning heavy star-hopping thru Jon's 10" dob, I have realized that for some of the objects it was lil bit tricky to locate few that don't have any reference stars nearby.. or bumping accidentally into new objects while star hopping and wasn't aware abt what i am looking at.. so I also bought a object locator.

Today I tested the whole system and its pretty good...

Time to begin cosmos hunting soon thru my new eyes.