OI: Henry Coe Saturday 21 March

[Sean McCauliff]

I called the ranger station and they mentioned that there will be backpackers parked at the overflow lot.  Going to roll the dice on this.  Will arrive 5:30-6:30.  Probably leave at 2 am.

[Ted Baltz]

I made it to the overflow lot by sunset.  I set up the 15" UC while Sean argued with technology and gravity.  The weather turned out to be fairly clear but windy.

Both Sean and I saw a thin crack along a lunar crater (about 10% illumination) that I first thought was an eyelash somewhere in the optical path.  Long shadow?  Oddly illuminated fissure?

We both embarked on a lackadaisical Messier Mosey.  In the end, I managed a half-marathon of 56 Messier objects.

I did catch a fair number of extras, including Venus and Jupiter w/ GRS.  Notable others included the Double Cluster (I'm told I'm weird for liking open clusters so much), NGC 2903 in Leo, NGC 3628 in the triplet, NGC 3384,9 both right next to M105, NGC 4394 right next to M85, and I didn't really count near Markarian's chain.

As we were packing up a little before 2am, I got a halfway decent view of Omega Centauri at less than 10 degrees altitude.

While we heard howling coyotes, there were no foxes to steal potato chips from Sean's truck this time.

-Ted

On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 11:53 AM Sean McCauliff <sean.mc...@gmail.com> wrote:

I called the ranger station and they mentioned that there will be backpackers parked at the overflow lot.  Going to roll the dice on this.  Will arrive 5:30-6:30.  Probably leave at 2 am.

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