by Dave North
Richard Navarrete wrote:
Coe turned out to be a fine place to see the comet. We had good views and it was pretty dark up there. Temps were very comfortable.
Good! Of course, it was unclear whether the SJ light dome would interfere too much, so we chanced the far side of the ridge (past Montebello). It worked out fine; we barely got west of the cumulative dome of the peninsula and SF -- presumably this helped.
About 40 minutes of tail showed, and a hint of a second (westward) tail.
Seeing was, however, usual for the far side of the ridge: horrid. Stars were blobbed out so we couldn't make out any nuclear detail to speak of. Did watch it occult one of the blobs, though...
There was clearly a breeze (we could hear the wind rustling the trees) but it was still and warm at our protected pullout.
Lots of cars went by...
On the way back home we stopped in at Montebello and lent some comet-finding help to a few folks who were still there. Conditions were quite nice at MB, and the southern sky was glorious!