Coyote Lake, 19 April 2006

by Bob Jardine

While driving in, I was struck by how high the lake was, and how far it extended back towards the entrance. All of that rain had to go somewhere, I guess.

I arrived shortly after 8:00 and started observing around 9:00. There were no clouds and it wasn’t too cold -- just a light jacket and baseball hat were all I needed. Seeing was good to very good all night. At around 10:45, I did a count in Leo -- 11 stars for mag 5.6. The SQM read 20.26. When I left around 12:30 AM, the SQM read 20.41.

I started out with Saturn. It looked pretty good, even though the scope wasn’t cooled down yet. I finished with Jupiter. A very nice view, seeing was quite good. Five bands were obvious across the disk, with lots of interesting stuff going on in the NEB, whose South edge was very jagged, even “zig-zaggy”. All four moons appeared as disks.

The highlight was Comet 73P (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3). It was easy to find near Alpha CrB. Nice broad, fan-shaped tail, extending about 1/4 degree. There appeared to be a double stellar core. Probably one was a background star.

Other than Saturn, Jupiter, and the comet, I did mostly H-2 stuff. Only one DNF: NGC 5548 in Bootes.

• galaxies in Leo -- NGCs 3067, 3107, 3177, 3338, 3384, 3389 (and M105).
• galaxies in Com -- NGCs 4152, 4237, 4298, and 4302.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 20, 2006 21:18:52 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Apr 23, 2006 08:13:31 PT