by Bob Jardine
Mark Wagner kindly called my cell phone from Coe to warn me off due to the high winds. At the time, I was on 101 just South of the Coe exit in Morgan Hill, on my way to the Peak. I had decided on the Peak over Coe at the last minute, based on the gale-force winds at my home in Cupertino.
Got to the Peak plenty early. It was mildly breezy, but we all set up scopes anyway. It calmed a little bit after sunset, and some observing was possible. But then it picked up big time not too long after dark. Most people packed up and left between 11 and midnight.
In the small amount of decent observing time, I managed 5 objects: Comet 9P Temple 1 and the three nearby galaxies (NGCs 4772, 4845, and 4900) and Asteroid 14 Irene. Not surprisingly, the comet appeared a little larger than the previous week at MB, and I thought I detected a hint of asymmetry. Oh, and I looked at Saturn and Jupiter (twice). Seeing was bad to poor. Jamie and I did a limiting mag count in Bootes -- both of us came up with 16 stars in the triangle, for 5.9.
Even Peter Natcher's sacrifice of the 20" Starmaster to the wind gods didn't help. However, when the last two of us (DDK and I) packed up, they were satisfied -- it became dead calm. Jamie and I sat for about 1/2 hour in our chairs, viewing the rising summer eye candy in binoculars; discussing the injustice of the weather this winter and spring; TAC news, characters, and happenings; and the Star Wars movies, both new and old. We both left about 12:30.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Jun 05, 2005 18:29:45 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 24, 2005 17:04:05 PT