Saturday, June 9, 2012
CoE Star Party
Darin Koch
8:00p-1:00a
Guests: 50
Before I start, I came upon a first ever along RM2341....a pair of live geese birds walking side by side in the middle of the road! I slowed down and talked to the birds...."you're very pretty birds, but please use the side of the road!"
Grounds good, Harlan good, Ealing good, internet connection slow, but ok (.4mbs d/.3mbs u).
A good eager crowd, started small and then a bunch more came. I had my 25x100s on bino mt on hand and in good working order after a small mod i did earlier in the day. Rock solid. I showed Saturn, M51, M81-82 in them. Seeing was above average, I put a fan on the Ealing and that certainly helped cool it down quickly. Then we did deep sky: M51, M13, M81-82. Last guest left around 11pm and I pulled up a chair and sat and viewed thru my binos till 12:45p. So nice the Milky Way thru these things.
I brought many (maybe 40?) large 80 gal trash bags and put on bottom shelf in SW steel cabinet. We are set for several years using the large green trash can w/lid inside EEO.
Left at 1:03a, 75º.
