This event goes through central Sana Cruz/Live Oak, with Cabrillo Observatory on the northern limit, and Kirk's place near the southern limit. Karl's a little too far away to have much chance. The event lasts 1.0 sec, but is only 8 degrees from the gibbous moon, so skylight will be trouble. But the star is bright enough that at 2x or 4x it should be OK. The target is between Cancer and Leo, 8 degrees lower left of the moon. Hope for clean skies. Alt=70, stable, Az=182. My experience is that the 0.33 reducer/Watec combo is fine on a flat mount up to alt=74, so 70 degrees should be OK.
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I planned to get this from Cabrillo Observatory, but clouds had me decide instead to do Astro 8A from the 705a classroom. I gave my students the Mercury Orbit lab, which is the most mathematical and difficult of my in-class labs. That was probably not wise, as the students needed lots of help, and I didn't break away and get out to my car w/ telescope and try to set up for the event until too late. Nothing went wrong with the setup; it was very efficient. I have been able to get set up and recording for events in as little as 15 minutes from arrival to recording. But this time, I had only 14 minutes. I missed getting on-target by 1 minute. No data from me.
Vertical lines show the predicted event time. Looks like a miss.
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