8/11/07 - Sublime Sand Harbor

by Matt Tarlach

It's not every year the Perseids fall square on a new moon weekend, so I decided to make the most and go up to Tahoe for the event MarkW posted about last week. I brought my 80mm refractor and set up on the beach at Sand Harbor, near the NE corner of Lake Tahoe, with a couple of lawn chairs for myself and the bride. There were probably a couple of hundred public attendees at the event, and I showed eye candy objects to a few dozen of them. There was also a nice presentation on constellations by a fellow from a local Tahoe astronomy group - though I thought he went on a bit long, overworking the green laser pointer while most of us were watching for meteors - and a few other scopes up to 18" set up for public viewing.

But the "stars" of the night were the shooting ones....we didn't count but as it got towards midnight the rate picked up, and we were treated to a number of bright, trailing shooters in the mag 1 or better range - allowing for the phenomenon whereby 100 people going "ooooh!" adds a point or two to "apparent" magnitude.

The site was far from perfect: it's just down the beach from the ampitheater where a Shakespeare production was going on, and the lights from the theater impacted the western sky until they shut down around 10:40. Then there were lights from the cars leaving the parking lot, and from nearby Hwy 28. But after 11 when it quieted down, the nice man with the green laser ceased and desisted, and cars passed only every few minutes, it got down to about LM 6.5. The geography of the point that shelters Sand Harbor hid the lights of both South Lake Tahoe, and Incline Village to the North. The noise of the surf about 50 feet away from our lawn chairs, and the glimmer of mag 1 boathouse lights across the beautiful lake made it a most aesthetic spot for casual viewing. Jupiter and the central Milky Way both cast reflections across the rippling water, a sight I've never seen before.

So, I spent my new moon Saturday watching meteors, and am semi-committed to volunteer my larger scope at another public Perseid event tonight, in West Davis. But, I still have Monday - anyone else free for a Monday night trip to IHOP or wherever? Any reports or predictions on smoke effects on the West Slope?

Matt T

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