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Re: [OM] Leonids, anyone?

Subject: Re: [OM] Leonids, anyone?
From: Garth Wood <garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:16:44 -0700
At 10:53 AM 11/22/2002 -0600, Barry B. Bean wrote:
>On Wed, 20 Nov 2002 19:40:39 -0600, W. J. Liles wrote:
>
>>Despite the moon and clouds and fog the Leonids did not
>>disappoint. 
>
>If we could expect anothe Leonid next year, I'd give this year's display an A 
>for quantity, but a B- for quality. Our skies were crystal clear, but there 
>were no 
>large fireballs, and only a few medium fireballs. It was still beautiful, 
>however, and timed just right for a big breakfast at the cafe afterwards.
>
>However, since the next large leonids shower is scheduled for around the time 
>my son turns 115, I'm bumping the show up to an A.


**HEAVY SIGH**

As some of you might remember, the spousal unit and I went for a multi-week 
vacation in the American Southwest (which turned out to be "only" in Colorado 
and New Mexico), and we actually extended our vacation by four days in order to 
book into a place called the Star Hill Inn near Las Vegas, New Mexico 
(http://www.starhillinn.com) to watch the Leonids (and do some general night 
sky astro stuff).

The minimum stay at Star Hill is two nights, so we booked for the morning 
before (Sunday night) and the morning of (Monday night).  Monday morning was 
brilliantly clear, but the moon was annoyingly bright (something like 970f 
full), and made viewing anything fainter than about magnitude 6.0 almost 
impossible.  Still, we got to see some nifty stuff (Saturn's in an ideal 
position for the next few months to view the rings), and the panoply of 
telescopes etc. available to guests was awe-inspiring (you can even book the 
8-ton 24" Richey-Chretien with CCD for $125.00/night -- comes with its own 
observatory shell...  ;-) ).

The next night was dead-clear after sunset, and we went to bed anticipating 
that, while the moon was annoying, we'd have clear skies at around 3:30 A.M. 
local time (which was when the second, and expected to be the better of the 
two, storms was to peak).

It was not to be.  I climbed out of bed around 2:45 A.M., dressed hastily, and 
grabbed my OM-4 and assorted gear, walking quickly out to the observation deck 
in the chilly -5 degrees Celsius New Mexico air.  Two-thirds of the sky was 
lightly obscured by high, thin cloud, including the entire constellation of 
Leo, which formed a glowing canopy under the influence of the moon.  People had 
come to Star Hill from as far away as Alaska (and Alberta!) to watch the show, 
and all we got for our efforts were the occasional sports which could be seen 
through the glowing haze and a few clear patches.  I was so hoping for a 
multi-megaton air burst...

When we drove away from the Inn the next morning, the sky was clear blue, and 
the clouds were retreating over the southeastern horizon.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr...

I recommend the Inn quite highly.  It's all housekeeping units, so you have to 
bring your own food, but there's a more-than-adequate Wal-Mart Supercenter in 
Las Vegas itself, so you can stock up.  A bit pricey, but the facilities for 
stargazing are quite worth it, if you're into that sort of thing.  We met one 
woman there who books an entire month at Star Hill every year!

Got lots o' pictures (not of the Leonids, but other nifty stuff), but the 
security guys at Denver International Airport zapped 'em, so I'm just 
developing a couple of test rolls to see if they're affected.  If not, I'll 
develop all the rest and pick some (hopefully) choice ones to show the group.

Garth



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