Last night at Lake Sonoma (12/19/06)

by Steve Gottlieb

I'll post a more complete observing report later, but last night at Lake Sonoma was very nice. When Bob Douglas and I arrived at sunset, Venus was very low in the southwest but shining brightly. Then after setting up, I was amazed to see a very bright pass of the ISS heading nearly overhead and fading slowly to the east until it winked out in the east entering the earth's shadow.

Overall, conditions were very transparent, dry, calm and cold (but not uncomfortable under several layers of clothing). The only downside was soft seeing (perhaps 2"), but overhead in Perseus where I was chasing galaxies it was fine at 250x. Always great to observe in the winter -- by 11:30 I had already observed for 5 hours and had observed about 3 dozen objects. Packed up early, drove back to Albany and was in a toasty bed by 1:30.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 19, 2006 12:58:21 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Dec 19, 2006 20:53:24 PT

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