by James Turley
A large pack of TACo CalStar holdouts showed up for a warm Autumn evening at Coyote Lake Park. Denny's scope count was 22! High cirrus clouds greeted us when we arrived around 1730. Temperatures never dropped below 60's, and RH stayed below 50 until about 1am, rising to around 70.
It's interesting to contrast the intersection of the day-use ecologies with the night-use, as astronomers unpack their expensive precision instruments mounted on motorized platforms, and boaters haul out their speed machines hitched to more expensive trucks. Guys from both packs, evaluating gear, wondering how their's stacks up to other's--gear...
High Fire danger warning at the gate cautioned us about any fire, threatening to destroy our CoyoteQ plans. Rhonda--resident ranger at Mt. Madonna, and hostess to an earlier observing site adventure at her house there--showed up and said ok to fires on the lot.
As it got dark, the clouds seemed to dissipate, and the Milky Way shined early on. I like Coyote, because the East is good. I'm always anxious to point my scope to the new stuff peering over the high N-S ridge to the east. North and South are not wonderful there, due to the light domes of San Jose and Gilroy. At midnight, we noted the Gilroy dome considerably diminished.
As I continue my non GoTo M-survey, in keeping with my new persona as a value oriented dob guy, I logged M22 (hard to find), M28, M30, M72, M73 Aqu (looks like a comet), NGC 7009 Aqu Saturn at 200x, NGC 1664 Aur OC.
My top find was NGC 1893 Per OC superimposed on IC 410, a large emission nebula. Very nice with an OIII at 80x.
Continuing with M38, M37, and my gosh, M35 already. Lovely.
Present was almost everybody not at CalStar. Isaac and Heidi fed up with Swiss Chocolates and Dino Eggs (ask them).
The main event for me was Matthew Marcus' great and patient find of Ceres, now at opposition. With his drawings, this largest minor planet was easy to spot in Cetus. Thanks Mat.
Saturn burbled over the ridge. We all wondered how the CalStar folks were doing. Asking ourselves why we weren't there, but, frankly, not to too unhappy with the closer, urban skies of Coyote Lake. Many were working scopes as a pack of us left for Denny's Restaurant around 2am. I mused again about the intersection of these two eco systems: tired astronomers, and late night bar revelers. Sitting at the table, waiting for Grand Slams, Heidi naming minor planets in order by size, and talk of Near Extinction Events.
A good evening!