I was out for a run tonight around sunset in Sycamore Canyon. Since I
saw the last rattlesnake, I've been more cautious and watchful - but
tonight, just as I finished my run, I came across this guy near the
parking lot!
We ran today at the Santa Rosa Plateau for the first time in a while.
All the flowers are gone, replace by brown and golden grass. We ran a
six mile loop starting at the Vernal Pool trailhead. It was not too
hot yet early in the morning so we had a great run!
I was out running this morning in Sycamore Canyon and heading quickly
downhill when I nearly stepped on this snake coming sound a turn. I
was coming from the background of the picture and almost didn't see it
because it was just on the right hand side of the trail and blended in
well. I was going too fast to stop so I leaped as high and as far as
I could to clear it.. At first I didn't think it was a rattlesnake
because I've never seen one this big before (probably over 5 ft long
and the size of my fist) but as I passed it, it coiled up and started
to rattle and hiss letting me know he meant business! That's the
second rattlesnake I've seen in two days.
We went out to Joshua Tree National Park last night to camp and use our Obsession 18" UC telescope. We set up camp in space B17 at the Cottonwood Springs campground where there were a few other astronomers there (Vernon with an 18" Starmaster and couple guys imaging with refractors). Heading across the parking lot to use the bathroom, we had a run in with a small rattlesnake that was crossing our path - that's the first time we have seen one in all the years we have been coming here. After getting the telescope and tent set up, we took a nap until it cooled off a bit around 11:30p. We started off watching the Jovian moon Io transit and cast a shadow onto Jupiter. The seeing was decent and it stayed warm (shorts weather) all night. We looked at a variety of deep sky objects and spent some time learning to use the Argo Navis pointing system.
The seeing started to get worse around 3am (stars started twinkling and contrast was reduced) so we quit around 4:15am and went to sleep.
It doesn't take long to for things to heat up in the desert as it was too hot to stay int the tent much later than 7:30am so we packed up and headed home. It was a great 4th of July weekend!
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