Brief Montebello Report for 8/11/2004 (Wed)

by Peter McKone

It was warm and dry all night at Montebello. A marine layer below us snuffed out a lot of the usual sky glow. Almost every available spot in the parking lot was occupied, and almost everyone brought a telescope. I know how preachers must feel on Easter. It's surprising how many decent telescopes come out of the closet for a major astronomical event. And in this case, telescopes weren't even necessary. There were some nice sporadic meteorites early, but they began arriving in earnest after midnight. I didn't see anyone counting. Two counters would have been needed, since the activity was about evenly split between Perseus and Sagittarius. Based on the Oohs and Ahs, rather than actual sightings, I would estimate that we "saw" about 30 meteorites.

I made a point of remembering to look at Neptune, after Bob Jardine reported that he had seen Triton on the previous Saturday. What I saw was surprising. Not one moon, but two! They were approximately mag. 13, positioned north and south of the planet. David Kingsley confirmed the sighting. I thought I knew where the nearby mag 13 stars were, but maybe not. More research is required.

I left at 3 am, just in time to see a tiny red crescent moon rising over the Bay. My car thermometer reported 73 degrees, but dropped to 61 at the bottom of the hill. I can't remember a nicer night at Montebello.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Aug 12, 2004 12:16:05 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 07, 2005 20:19:29 PT