Taurids from Meherana

by Jamie Dillon

We saw some big ones, some with colors, from the foothills. One I saw had blue in it; folks were raving about one I missed from being bent over the eyepiece, that was golden. Skies were certainly decent there, with some transient haze, but mostly real clear, limiting magnitude 6.2 on two counts thru the night. Seeing was good, 4/5, most of the time. Mars was holding up at 210x. Dew did set in by 0030, when things decided to get good and wet. When the bottom lenses on the eyepieces got dewed up, I started packing up.

Turned out to be a lowkey impromptu starparty, with 7 people showing up for supper and sky. This is a wild stretch of hills just outside of Mariposa, set aside as a Meher Baba retreat. Maybe 18 miles from Michelle's Plettstone. This is 300 acres that'll stay wild, with bears, coyotes, rattlers, mountain lions on the site, lots of deer, wildflowers, birds, frogs and snakes in the creek, the works. Skies can be excellent there. At the parking area there's a kitchen tent, and one person came in from Merced not only for stargazing, but to cook up a marvelous meal for the gang of us. This was easygoing hilltop work.

Broke my own rule and didn't find anything new Saturday night, between people taking turns oohing and aahing, especially over Mars and the Double Cluster. M15 was also a big hit. Chris Pearson, the guy who'd gotten completely lost in the Virgo Cluster one night years ago, stuck around, and we ended with a good long look at ngc 253, the Sculptor Galaxy. Once again, it was really looking good, bright long and complex, with plenty of dust lanes. Also spent some time naturally gawking at M42 after midnight.

Chris' Dad gave him a telescope years ago, that he hasn't assembled. The Addiction is waiting right around the door for ole Chris.

Good to be out in the woods, and excellent to have some quality time with 253.

Posted on tac-sac Oct 31, 2005 13:59:39 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 15, 2006 20:00:37 PT