Coe Dec 11

by Rob Hawley


Thanks to Mark for organizing the pot luck!

Coe is not where I normally observe due to the San Jose lights. But weather kept me away from Plettstone and indecision from Fremont Peak. Coe proved a good choice.

During the day the forecast had changed and showed a system tracking to the West. That is indeed what happened. The clouds stayed away until about 2 AM. One of the other writers mentioned poor transparency. IMHO the transparency varied depending on the part of the sky. To the east and overhead it was quite good. To the south and west it was pretty crummy. Those are also the directions of the light impact so that amplified any transparency effects.

The evening was surprising warm and dry. Temps remained in the high 50s and low 60s until after 1 AM. The price of that was a rather stiff wind from the central valley.

I brought the SJAA 17 inch scope again. Here are the non eye candy dark sky objects viewed. All were viewed at 139x.

ObjectTypeMagNotes
M 1-10Planetary11.60bright with def central star
NGC 2261Bright NebulaHubble's Variable Nebula eye candy quality object also looked at in 10mm
C/2004 Q2 Machholz Comet5.37very bright definite head
IC 402Galaxy 13.70 averted vision
NGC 1779Galaxy 12.10 def e-w elongation moderate easy
NGC 1300 Galaxy 10.30 definite size and bright center can not see spiral low with heavy light pollution
IC 284 Galaxy 12.00 definite edge on noticeable size not very bright weak direct visibility
NGC 1174 Galaxy 11.70 faint glow around star visible because wind is shaking scope
NGC 1175 Galaxy 12.90 weak direct visibility
NGC 604 Bright Nebula easy to see
NGC 7611 Galaxy 12.60
NGC 7619 Galaxy 11.10 bright no distinct shape
NGC 7623 Galaxy 12.80 averted vision required
NGC 7626 Galaxy 11.20 bright no distinct shape
NGC 7631 Galaxy 13.10 averted vision required.

I also hit some eye candy: M31/32/110, M33, M81/82, M36/37/38, and of course Saturn.


Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 12, 2004 15:34:42 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Mar 22, 2006 18:02:43 PT [an error occurred while processing this directive]