This time, it was not an easy decision to attend - with unclear weather prospects and generally clouds the days before. Nevertheless, me together with my friend Dominik persuaded ourselves to go. When we arrived, the sky was overcast. Despite that, we started to set our telescopes, while some of the early arrivers laughed at us. Still overcast after sunset, so we set a fire to roast some sausages for dinner. Than, like magic, it cleared out at 10PM. We just finished the food AND the scopes were set, so after few minutes of polar aligning we were already imaging - while few of the ones who laughed at us were frantically trying to set up in darkness ;-)

First night was very good for imaging, although few patches of fog passed by, one so dense that Domink actually started to power down his setup. The fog disappeared in maybe 15 minutes and the sky remained clear the rest of the night.

Next day, a number of "late runners" arrived, encouraged by the very good weather prospects. Daytime sky was deep blue. Together with Piotr and Astro-Mati we set for a walk to the mountains - actually a nice casual walk off-road (and off-pathway) for 3 hours in deep bushes ;-) But it was good to inhale the fresh mountain air and the views were beautiful, with trees just touched by the Autumn - few starting to catch reds and yellows.

Indeed, the second night was unusually clear and transparent. However, the seeing was probably the worst of the times I have been there, and some users of longer FL scopes were swearing they hate Bieszczady, while others were patiently trying to image. Even at 450mm FL I was seeing effects of seeing on my OAG guider. Many setups means more power consumption and - as the power lines are of poor quality - we had some equipment hang-ups probably due to noise or voltage drops. Next time I am going to power my setup entirely from deep cycle batteries - which can be recharged during the day. In the morning the temperature dropped below freezing so we had first frost on the equipment.

We could hear deer roaring in the forest all the night.

Next day, a number of people packed back home. In the morning, sky was crystal clear and we set for a short drive to the artificial lake of Solina. The views were beautiful and there was a lot of people, but all could feel that the season is ending, with visitors sad to go home and locals tired after all the work.

In the evening, some cirrus clouds appeared and the sky get fogged, so we had serious doubts if our decision to stay was a right one.

Only 3 die-hard observers remained in the field. In the evening, we were graced with views of a number of V formations of birds flaying to the south - duck, geese and cranes. Apparently the Autumn is approaching fast...

The night started with a bit hazy sky, so I set to image larger open clusters. However, the sky cleared perfectly long before midnight so we could be back to business with nebulae and galaxies.

That night, the seeing was absolutely amazing. We used 8inch f/6 Synta Newtonian on Jupiter. No mater what eyepiece we inserted - the view was as steady as on photograph. The only practical limit on magnification was rather sticky movement of the scope in azimuth - so we preferred to stay at 270x magnification. Dark and light ovals, spots, swirling and structure in the bands, GRS - all were plainly visible. All moons were visible as little discs as opposed to dimensionless pinpoints, and during Io transit, the moon was visible as a 3D globe hanging in front of the planet, with edge shading. I do not recall any seeing good like this for many years! We spend almost all the time not dedicated to our imaging runs just watching Jupiter.

The wild deer ventured quite close to the observing field and we could hear some animals roaring nearby and crushing the bushes while passing by. If not only the host told us the day before he seen few wild bears in the valley...

Some light fog raised in the valley below the observing field and even entered the camping area on the other side of the fence, but did not invade inside. In the morning, zodiacal light was plainly visible reaching up to Gemini. The night was very dewy and in the morning, our equipment was simply dipping with water.

Next morning the sky was crystal clear deep blue again, but we sadly had to tear down and go back home...