11/25 - 11/26: Was Bad Night; Became Great Night at Coe

by William G. Schultz

I had left a critical part of my G11 mount at home. I was forced to return to home, where I had to decide if I wanted to go back to Coe again.

As it turned out, I made the correct choice.

At 10:00, the temp was 50F and dropping. RH was 49% and falling. Fog was beginning to fill the low valleys, and the local dew began to disappear as the wind shifted from the SW to the North. This wasn't the first time this year that it got *dark* at Coe. The cumulative lighting of San Jose, Morgan Hill and Gilroy effectively disappeared.

The sky grew more transparent through the night. High altitude haze kept well to the North, Humidity ranged from 40 to 50%, mostly affected by the wind speed. It was chilly but not uncomfortable.

Observing surprises included:

the almost boring nature of insignificant, faint irregular OCls in the Winter Milky Way when few galactic targets are to be found;
I made visual confirmation of the very dim Rosette nebula through the C11 (hooray!);
during a reprise of M46, the dark sky made the planetary NGC 2347 a dominant feature in the cluster;
NGC 2440 was a brilliant oval green PlN that allowed use of magnification to above 400X;
the Eskimo nebula (NGC 2392) was an amazing sight (structure was evident at any magnification through 400X)

I finished 50.1% of the Herschel catalog, completing objects through till the March skies.

Coe State Park has become my regular viewing site. When the dust is down and the conditions are right, there is no comparable close-to-home observing location. And for $2.00, toilet and wildlife included, there is no comparable value. What I can't understand is why I can be the solitary occupant of the parking lot on so many occasions.