Jupiter and perseids from Loma Prieta

John Pierce

I and a couple other SCAC members were up at 2500' off Loma Prieta above Summit Drive, doing some astronomy show-n-tell for some boy scouts at one of the parents house. Moon in our faces, right in Sagittarius meant we couldn't do much in the way of nebular stuff, but man, Jupiter was awesome. it was a warm night with very VERY good seeing.

I managed to show all the scouts how the newtonian mirror created a little image of the moon on a piece of tissue across the focuser, then plonked in a barlowed 35mm, explaining it was like a microscope, and had them all line up for a look at the same moon... it wasn't yet dark, some of the kids were asking about jupiter, so I swung over, and whoa, Ganymede was just about to enter transit, so I had all the scouts and parents line up again for a quick look see while ganymede was still visible.

I spent a good deal of time on jupiter at 180x and my 10" coulter, watching Ganymede transit. it was clearly visible against the body, also the great (un)red spot was clearly visible... the scouts were all pretty much gone by about 11pm, so we were winding down as we all got day jobs, I took one last look at Jupiter before packing my scope at about 11:30 and holy crap, there was not only Ganymede poking out of the far side, but there was its shadow taking a nibble out of the other side. wow. quickly I called over everyone who was still around and gave them a look.

Meteor wise, well, we saw dozens of obviously Perseids, but no big showers. leaving at about 12:30am, we were too early for the peak, and just didn't have the energy to stay out til 4am or whatever and still drive home (this site was /WAY/ up a 1 lane barely paved road). The site had great horizons, but of course, the monster san josey light dome was all over the north and east. I do think that later in the evening when the coastal fogs were up higher, maybe 800', that the san jose glow was reduced significantly midnight, and I was wearing a cotton long sleeved T and a shortsleeved T over it and jeans. and not even a little cold.