by Craig Colvin
As I was considering packing on Saturday afternoon I was thinking how appropriate the moniker "Cloudy Nights" was for such a gathering. If I hadn't committed to my virtual friends that I was going I would normally have cancelled based upon way the sky looked. But I didn't have anyway of letting them know I wasn't coming, and the CSC said it was supposed to clear after dark so I packed up and headed out.
There were five of us that showed up before dark with a collection of 10 scopes (you always need a backup, right?). The skies were still cloudy as night fell, so we kept the scopes packed in the cars and chatted for awhile hoping that the CSC was going to be right although not hopeful. There was a strong wind blowing from the north and it appeared that it was pushing a front towards us. But we weren't sure.
Shortly before 9pm fellow TACo Sean McCauliff showed up and joined us. He said that it was clear to the north and was hopeful. Well it turned out that the CSC was correct and right at 9pm the front passed us and we had clear skies.
I didn't observer anything off of my observing list, instead I spent the night looking at eye candy in my 18" and comparing the views in other scopes. Looked at a lot of nebulas, Lagoon, Trifid, Eagle, Swan, Ring, Dumbbell, Cat's Eye, Helix, Veil. A few galaxies, globs, and OCs were thrown in for good measure. It was a lot of fun. I didn't think the transparency was all that great, but at 11:30 a couple of us measured the LM as 6.2, as good as any night I've had at Coyote.
Just as the CSC predicted the clouds rolled back in at midnight, and we all packed it up and headed home. Although I had no hopes of observing when I left home it turned into a fine evening.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Sep 19, 2004 11:31:00 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 11, 2005 21:05:58 PT