by Peter McKone
The sky was completely clear, and the breeze, which had been annoying all day, died down to less than five mph. During the evening a patch of fog formed to the south, I think due more to low temperature, rather than high humidity. I certainly didn't hear any complaints about dew. The air temperature was in the mid to high 40's, which together with the slight breeze, brought out everyone's winter clothing.
Seeing was very good early in the evening, but softened up later. I tried to split Izar sometime around 11 pm, and it looked more like a beach ball than a pair of stars. I intended track down some objects from Steve Gottlieb's 600 list, but as so often happens, I got distracted by eye candy. I spent some time staring at M83, which (like the comet) has a bright core surrounded by a large amount of nebulosity, but I the detail I saw last month (from a darker more southerly location) was totally absent. On the other hand, I was able resolve a lot of stars in the glob M68, south of Corvus. M13 and M5 were breathtaking at 250x. The galaxy NGC 5248 in Bootes was also big and bright, and hinted at showing a lot more detail, if I would just return on a darker night. Perhaps from Shingletown.
Bob Czerwinski had his 18" Starmaster in an indecent position, pointing at Omega Centauri, as it passed over the southern notch. People were standing in line, and kneeling in front of the eyepiece, to take a look. It was like a religious experience. I heard someone say it was the best view of that object that he had seen from Montebello, and I think most people agreed.
I stayed just long enough to witness the beginning of an IO shadow transit, and then packed up and headed down the hill at 1:20. Several cars were still in the lot. We should schedule these comet events more often!
Posted on sf-bay-tac May 13, 2004 16:15:23 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 11, 2004 19:02:55 PT