by Jim Ster
I've been reading everyone's reports from the various venues everyone observed from last night and like those of us at the Nevada City Airport, it sounds like most had a good evening.
TAC-SACers Allan Keller, Jane Smith, Gene Kahn and I had made arrangements with fellow TAC-SACer Vic Maris to assist him with his Learning Exchange astronomy class for the evening. We arrived at what used to be the Nevada City Airport just north of NC proper around 8:00 pm. I say "what used to be" because there really is no sign of the airport after they removed the runway and bulldozed the area into literally thousands of dry, dusty, red clay moguls and built a BMX track right smack in the middle of it all.
As we drove what used to be the length of the runway to the north western end, I was glad that I was in Jane's truck and not in my Grand Marquis. This was pretty severe. The dust that kicked up as we drove in was horrific to the point that Allan decided to not to even set up as he had just completed a rare washing of his primary. Fortunately, there was no wind and the dust settled pretty much where it was without causing too much trouble.
We had a few locals disturb our night vision and kick up a little dust looking for a good place to view the Perseids, but all in all, viewing conditions were very good. We didn't have any difficulty at all with clouds until the moon started to rise in the north east just after midnight. As we settled into our lawn chairs to enjoy some Perseids, (BTW,I didn't see a single damn one of those "Pleinids" that Jane was looking for!) we watched as the clouds backed up on the high slopes of the Sierras from the north east, and seemed to form this incredibly beautiful "nebulosity" around the moon that we all found to be an enjoyable framing of the subject.
We must have seen 30 or 40 spectacular meteors burn across the sky, most leaving huge cinder trails and some having beautiful colors. Around midnight, there was one that exploded so brightly that it looked like a flash bulb had gone off above us. In case no one's mentioned it, a good lawn chair or outdoor recliner is an essential piece of observing hardware when it comes to nights with potential meteor showers. Jane was learning this lesson the hard way by trying to use her observing stool for the job. Thank goodness that Gene had an extra collapsible chair that he let her use. Vic's class was very polite and eager to observe (and all female I might add!). We showed them various Messiers and used a variety of binoculars, telescopes, eyepieces and filters to give them a good show.
All in all I'm not too certain about the NC BMX park being a good winter observing site due to the clay and moguls. Add a little water and it could be a real mess.