Coe last night... brief report...

by Mark Wagner

There was essentially no marine layer, but it seemed there was some particulate in the air, as the light dome from San Jose was very pronounced. On the other hand, the Milky Way was showing nicely just after sunset, so transparency overhead was decent. Temps were never cold, just a little chilly - I did not have to wear a jacket, but I had a few layers of polartec on.

We had an excellent turnout, including a visit from a new ranger at Coe, Ranger John, who had rangered at Fremont Peak previously.

A TAC award goes to Mike Delaney, one of the younger new "TACos" on the scene within the past year. Mike revived a Jay Freeman tradition (presthumously?) and brought four large pizzas up. Awesome Mike (Mountain Mike?)! As a result, we all forgot about Jamie's cookies.

There was a wide range of equipment, in fact, "new Andy" (Mauffet-Smith) made that exact comment to me. Another TACo who's been around for many years commented on how many new members of the group showed up. I was also noticing different languages being spoken at TAC star parties, so we're looking a bit more international in flavor.

I set up between Rashad and Kevin S. Rashad and I were looking at galaxies on the Deep Map 600. Rashad had "Tobor The Great" (an 8" SCT) and I was using my 10" f/5.7 CPT Dobsonian. With this reduced aperture, it often felt like we had our big guns out, and were hunting mag 15 and 16 galaxies. But the ones we were hitting (and really working hard to pick out in most instances) were in the mag 13 range. Maybe Rashad can chime in with a brief list, mine is still packed in the truck.

All in all it was a good night. The sky brightness detracted quite a bit from the viewing, but it also will provide a great contrast for many people, as most of the group that was there last night will be under Lake San Antonio skies later this week.