by James Turley
On Thur Apr 12. Denny, Jamie, and myself showed up at Coe for a fine evening of ribald camaraderie and a poor evening of skies with limiting magnitude, by Jamie's estimate, of 4.5. Denny and I were finding nothing, zero, zip. Jamie did eventrually punch through the haze and sky glow and manage to bag a big blob of fuzz in UMa. His post is elsewhere. Coe conditions were dry, cold, and winds to 20 knots.
In fact, the winds were so strong, that Jamie's bino and tripod did a face plant into Denny's truck. Luckly the bino's objectives did minimal damage to truck's finish.
The San Jose sky glow was terrible.
Due to a misunderstanding, Angel showed up at Dino instead of Coe. Dino, on the this same evening, according to Angel's reports, was calm, dry, clear and warmer.
I hadn't been up to Coe in a long time, after observing almost exclusively at Dino last Winter. I just did not remember how ugly the huge band of light stretching from San Jose to Morgan Hill could make things. This night, it was very bad. Its dome stretched up to the Pole Star and west and south, past Coyote Valley to Gilroy and Morgan Hill. The West was 100% crap. By Jamie's estimate, a full 25% of the Western sky was domed out.
Compare this to the small thin strip of 12 lights, far across the lake at Dino, where almost all of the sky is useable.
The moral? Don't rule out Dino in the Spring. In a word. Coe sucked big time. Time to move on.
And...you know what?, there are no BBQ pits at Coe.
Today, Sat 4/14, James hopes for the calm, dry and clear seclusion of Dino.