Henry Coe 10 Dec 2004

by Sean McCauliff

I had orignally planned going to Plettstone, but I got to Los Banos and I could barely see the road. So, I turned around and went to Henry Coe instead. I met Bob Jardine there and he let me in the gate (thanks!). It was fairly warm and did not put on any special winter clothing except for a jacket, warm socks and a hat. The air was dry. There was some fog deflecting light back down towards the cities. When I got there @ 9p the sky was half filled with clouds and became almost completely clouded except in the Orion, Canis Major, Puppis region where the clouds would come and go. Saturn was visible with the cassini division and some detail on the planet visible. I could see 6 stars in the trapesium. We left @ 1am when the sky was clearing a bit. There where some good objects that I had not seen before.

LX200 10" f/10

NGC 2439	17mm nagler, The center of the OC is a dim glow that is vaguly human shaped, the head having a bright star. The area around is rich in dim stars.
NGC 2440	9mm Nagler, planetary nebula. A halo that is slightly extended E-W (?). The core has a lumpy appearence. Ultra block filter seems to help.
NGC 2421	35mm panoptic. Dumploads of dim stars. Seems kind of like NGC 7789, but smaller.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 11, 2004 02:55:14 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 22, 2005 18:50:12 PT