by William G. Schultz
I needed a night out under the stars. I packed up latish and headed for Henry Coe.
The gate was securely chained (not dummy locked). Thankfully, with a crowd of one vehicle, I was able to park off the road immediately behind the "Coe" sign.
Observing conditions were not that great.
The Spring breeze was there to greet me. The no parking sign was rattling for much of the early evening. The air temp stayed at about 57, making it chilly,with the steady winds.
Star images were not crisp.
Jupiter was swimming, though it offered a wonderful sight as always with its satellites.
Transparency and limiting mag were sub-optimal. Despite the conditions, I logged maybe 18 Arp list objects, some higher SB objects down to the ~14th mag.
Also I am fairly convinced that I observed a faint glimpse of Leo 1, the low SB dwarf just to the north, and basking in the glow of bright Regulus. Using a little averted vision, and some N/S and E/W motion of the gem mount across the FOV, and pulling my eye back from the 17mm Ortho, I convinced myself that it was not an imaginary object. Leo was well placed at the zenith.
Bands of cirrus moved after midnight, mostly to the southerly region of the Coe sky. Low SB objects away from the zenith did not fare so well, so I worked through fainter listed objects in Leo, Virgo, Bootes and Herc, and the eye candy wherever I could. I got lucky in Corvus and Crater.
The wind finally stopped at about 01:30. Though the temps were a degree or two cooler, I felt much warmer and comfortable.
If you head up this evening, ensure you call Ranger Barry and arrange to have the gate unlocked.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 23, 2004 12:23:53 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 10, 2004 18:49:58 PT