by Rob Hawley
We got more visitors than last year. The picnic area was filled with horse trailers and campers. There was supposed to be a Boy Scout troop, but they never showed. Most of the visitors left before the show really began.
In case you were visiting the rovers (and missed the TAC postings) last night a lot happened on Jupiter. A little after midnight 3 different shadows were visible. Add to that a (supposed) red spot transit, an occultation, and a visible moon transit. I would like to say we clearly saw all of these events, but that would be fibbing.
It started out cool and mostly clear last night. My midnight it was cold (34 F) and dewy. The transparency was generally good, but with the moon and Jupiter little time was spent on deep sky stuff. The seeing varied greatly. Most of the evening I could not use my 10" over 100x. Occasionally it would stabilize enough to go to 180x. Others reported the same. The seeing got much worse after 11PM. By midnight it was very difficult to see detail on Jupiter.
There is another star party at Pacheco on May 1. The rangers have been handing out flyers in the local schools so it is likely this one will be better attended.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Mar 28, 2004 11:01:15 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 09, 2004 23:31:16 PT