by Steven Caron
I arrived at Coe shortly be for sunset, to find it was very, very windy. I set my GM100 mount, but feel no need to pull out optics until the wind died down. In the mean time just, play in the wind, sit around talk, and listen to the subway series. Go Meets!! During one of the fierce gustiest of wind, my red flash light blew away from me never to found. About half the folks took off. Marsha and Bob pack it up. It was getting colder and windier.
Eventually the wind died down at around 10:30. People started to bring out the OTA's, as did I. Seeing was absolute crap, so no planets tonight. Michelle setup her new TV Genesis in-between two cars, man what a scope! I love those buttery-smooth TV focusesers. I decided to hunt for extremely faint nebulae with my H-beata and O-III filters, with James wonderful 17mm Nagler and 40mm Optiluxe. My fist target was the California Nebula, which showed intricate structure with the H-beta filter. Continuing my fun with filters, I found the Bubble Nebula, Crescent Nebula, and Flaming Star Nebula. The Cocoon Nebula was a challenge though. I spent about 15 minutes trying to match star patterns. I confirmed the stars in the filed, so I called Mark over for a "Wager Confirmation". Mark did itdeed verify it as the Cocoon. I tryed for the Horsehead next, but failed, I was looking at were it should be, but more aperture was needed to bring it out.
Meanwhile the wind gusted around, giving people mouthfuls of dirt. My mount was put to the test. When a strong wind came up the scope did NOT move one bit. The wind would nearly blow you away and you would have to grab on to the scope to stay put! The rock-solid GM100 laughs at the wind. Jay's G11 also stood up to the wind. Only the die-hard observers remained, James said it best: this is "X-treme Astronomy". Hey, at least there was no dew.....