TAC Folks -
I posted a tentative OI for observing the Deep Impact/Comet Tempel 1
"meeting" on Sunday night from Henry Coe State Park. I noticed that nobody
else seems to be headed to Coe (unless it's supposed to be a secret). In
addition to concerns I have over chances of fog at Montebello, I also noted
a TAC posting or two that mentioned potential overcrowding at Montebello
since it has the most OIs posted on the TAC Web site. If the fog doesn't
come in and if it's not jammed with scopes, I agree that the darker sky
looking West from MB is a better choice than Coe. I'd welcome comments
about the risks of trying to observe a faint Comet Tempel 1 from Coe since
I'll be looking over more light pollution from that location. Is that the
main factor making others pass up Coe as the preferred observing site for
this event? I'm gambling that the magnitude increase after impact will be
great enough to cancel out the need for really dark skies and that a little
light pollution won't hurt in that case. And yes, I do realize that Coe has
the potential to get fogged out as well, not to mention high wind conditions
like we had in early June when a bunch of us got skunked. I'm also passing
up a chance to observe from a private site in the Santa Cruz Mtns due to
concerns about getting skunked if the fog rolls in. If I end up making the
wrong choice of observing sites, I figure there's always Monday night to
observe Tempel 1 again, assuming any magnitude increase last for more than
24 hours. Comments???
Joe Fragola
Received on Thu Jun 30 20:36:56 2005