1. Moon
2. Mars
Thats it. For me anyway. Had the webcam in the Melestron showing pics on
the Mac laptop.
Very interesting occurance or two though. An Iridium flare in exactly the
same spot as last Thurs was one. Another was a bolide to the south that
dumped pieces as it disintegrated (no sound).
The other was the fog. Around 10:30 or so, the sky was very clear with
just a touch of fog way over to the west. Within 15 min, all you could
see was mars. About 25 min later the sky was clear again and stayed that
way. Weird. I was expecting this 15 mile wide UFO to come down out of
the cloud.
I captured 2 batches of frames while I was setting there explaining for
the umpteenth time that Mars was not on fire or rotating quickly, but the
earths atmosphere was the culprit.
I did a fast process a few minutes ago and the results are quite nice.
The bluish clouds over the north pole show up quite well. First time I
have captured that.
There was a "huge" line for the 8 in refractor that was set up in the
parking area. Lots of customers. Nice night. Not as wet as last Thurs
although it started to go that way when the fog magically disappeared. I
think that is the fastest onset and disappearance of fog I have witnessed.
Nice evening. Home about 1:30.
I am definitely making up for the lack of mars viewing last year due to
the sandstorm.
---------
Phil Chambers [ptchamb@No-Spam] (S.F. Bay Area - Calif. USA)