There was a star party last night at Coyote, for members of the Cloudy
Nights astronomy message board
(http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=). A gathering of
internet friends getting to together to match real faces with virtual
impressions.
As I was considering packing on Saturday afternoon I was thinking how
appropriate the moniker "Cloudy Nights" was for such a gathering. If I
hadn't committed to my virtual friends that I was going I would normally
have cancelled based upon way the sky looked. But I didn't have anyway of
letting them know I wasn't coming, and the CSC said it was supposed to clear
after dark so I packed up and headed out.
There were five of us that showed up before dark with a collection of 10
scopes (you always need a backup, right?). The skies were still cloudy as
night fell, so we kept the scopes packed in the cars and chatted for awhile
hoping that the CSC was going to be right although not hopeful. There was a
strong wind blowing from the north and it appeared that it was pushing a
front towards us. But we weren't sure.
Shortly before 9pm fellow TACo Sean McCauliff showed up and joined us. He
said that it was clear to the north and was hopeful. Well it turned out that
the CSC was correct and right at 9pm the front passed us and we had clear
skies.
I didn't observer anything off of my observing list, instead I spent the
night looking at eye candy in my 18" and comparing the views in other
scopes. Looked at a lot of nebulas, Lagoon, Trifid, Eagle, Swan, Ring,
Dumbbell, Cat's Eye, Helix, Veil. A few galaxies, globs, and OCs were thrown
in for good measure. It was a lot of fun. I didn't think the transparency
was all that great, but at 11:30 a couple of us measured the LM as 6.2, as
good as any night I've had at Coyote.
Just as the CSC predicted the clouds rolled back in at midnight, and we all
packed it up and headed home. Although I had no hopes of observing when I
left home it turned into a fine evening.
-- Craig Colvin
Received on Sun Sep 19 11:30:56 2004