by Andrew Pierce
As promised I went up to Coyote Lake Sunday night. I was the only one there, it was 52 degrees, pretty dark and no wind. About 9:00 it quickly became impenetrably foggy and I packed up and went -- not home but to Coe. After driving through fog almost up to the cattle guard, the parking lot was ever so slightly above the fog. There was one observer there who unlocked the chain and let me in. All was well until about 11:10 when Coe suddenly became completely fogged in. Anyway I got my observing time in with a little more driving than expected. Having a Teleport that you can take down in less than 5 minutes and assemble in less than 10, helped immensely.
The sky at Coe was not as pristine as I expected -- the humidity took away most of what the lack of light pollution was giving. It was 46 degrees above the fog and there was a steady moderate breeze. Conditions were very nice looking north and east, though. I did pick up a two "volunteer" galaxies in Ursa Major, the two others near M81-82, which I had not been looking for.