Coe 12/3

by Sander Pool

First time at Coe for me. The sunset was one of the highlights of the evening. Deep orange climing up from the mountains to the West, fading into deep purple darkness. The moon was suspened right in the transition area and was showing nice earthshine. Venus joined the scene to make it even more scifi like.

Met up with Rob H. and Tony. Temps were already dropping and winds were getting worse. Quickly set up the C8 so it could equalize, then ate my sandwich. The sky looked wonderful with decent seeing closer to the zenith. Trying to focus the C8 was another matter though. The scope mounted on a wedge with dewshield was an effective sail and stars made neat little ovals in the eyepiece.

There were a few moments where the wind calmed down and I managed to add a few Messiers to my collection: M1, M33, M76, M78. All were distinct but not that spectacular because it remained hard to stay focused for any length of time.

I was again amazed how easy it can be to find something if you can actually see guide stars with the naked eye. Some of these were aim and shoot, right in the middle of the eyepiece. Certainly a lot more satisfying than struggling with some of these 'bright' nebulas from my house. On the plus side at my house it's easy to polar align as Polaris is about the only bright star that's visible in that part of the sky for me. Plus I know where it is, of course. At this new site I actually had to find Ursa Minor to show the way. Needless to say Ursa Minor is invisible from my house :)

On the cold front my full-zip pants were just the ticket. Didn't put them on till I got there and then they held out the wind. My motorcycle jacket wasn't that good a choice. It's too open at the bottom. I put on a fleece jacket underneath and all was fine except that it was getting a little tight at the collar making it hard to look up. Thin REI balaclava helpt kept the noggin warm when the wind blew right through my fleece hat. The only issue was that the face opening was a little small which is fine when you're by yourself but not when you want to chat and have some tea. I'll have to mod it to fit better. Toes got a little cold but warmed right up during packing so no big deal.

Thanks to Rob and Tony for the company and assistance!

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 04, 2005 15:25:36 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 16, 2006 22:15:34 PT