Coe Report for 12-13 Aug.

by Phil Chambers


I made it to Coe just before 3am. Looking for meteors and at the big gas jobs. Set up the NS 5 and pulled Uranus and Neptune out of the glare of the moon. The seeing wasnt the best but the big planets were impressive. Jupiter showed several bands and saturn's Cassini division was obvious. One of the moons was behind Jupiter early on but appeared later. First look at M42 for the year. Washed out from the moon and then the rising sun but I can confirm it is still there :-)

When I got there, Steve Caron (not Canyon) was there along with Matt Marcus. The three of us were all that showed. They had been there since 9:30 or 10 pm. I had gotten about 3 hrs of sleep before driving up. Made a world of difference. Nice sunrise.

Between about 4:30 to 5:30 (moon setting, sun not yet up), I saw about 30 or so meteors. About 5 of these were worth a wow. One crossed my field of view with my 7x50's while scanning in Orion. Left a trail of sparks, nice view.

A couple of others must have been coming straight at me because they would just suddenly appear, getting bright very fast and then dissappearing in a flash of light.

A couple left trails that could be seen for several seconds including one I didnt see but Steve called out and I turned around and could see the obvious trail which hung in the air for quite a while.

A nice night. The sky was pretty dark for about an hour and a half. Checked out the flashing lights at FP and they are still there. Still dont know exactly what they are but they evidentally dont interfere over there.

There is a lazy diamond that is formed by M45, Saturn, Aldeberon (showing orange), and Jupiter, that is worth a photo. Maybe later inthe month.

Oh yes, it was 68 deg and 20 - 25 % all night. Shirtsleeve weather. My feet with 2 pairs of socks, got warm. WONDERFUL. It was so nice that the big bright thing didnt even detract much. I could feel the "heat" from the moon on the side of my face.

There may not have been many things to look at, but it was a tremendously pleasent early morning and sunrise.