into 2008... Comet Holmes. This comet brightened by a factor of a million and put on a nice show in Perseus. I got some creative photos here for several months
Jan 12/13 - A night at Oak Ridge Observatory for comet photography w/ Chris Kitting. Here's the page.
Jan 25-27 - Photo Workshop "Cultural Mirages - Route 66 and the Mojave Desert"
Jan 30 - I helped Jamie Ferrell with getting Comet Holmes pictures for her science project. A night at the Ferrell's!
Feb 8 - A quick photo trip to Coast Rd Reservoir. Here's the results.
Feb 16-17 - Image Quest Family Camping - "Monarch Butterflies and Elephant Seals at Pismo Beach"
Feb 20 Wed eve - Early evening total lunar eclipse. Tentative plan; drive to Campbell where we can photo the moon rising over Lick Observatory. Bad weather, and I ended up teaming up with Jay Friedland to help show the eclipse at Sky Park in Scotts Valley to some home school groups in the San Lorenzo Valley. A fun night after all - here's the photo page.
Mar 1 Sat Eve - Chris Kitting and I joined the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club at Bonny Doon Airfield for astrophotography of the Comet Holmes / California Nebula conjunction. Here's the page.
Mar 8 Sat - The Santa Cruz County Science Fair - I was chair for the Space Sciences section judging. Great projects and great young people. Here's my photo page
Mar 9 Sun - Occultation of a bright star by Eugenia, and it's satellite Petit Prince, which was supposed to happen in the Central California area. Here's the sky-plane map of the misses for this satellite, including mine.
Mar 25 Tue - An evening of astrophotography of Comet Wirtanen and IC 410 in Auriga, from Swanton Road. A beautiful conjunction, captured on this photo page.
Mar 28-30 Fri-Sun - Image Quest Photo Workshop: Steinbeck Country - Monterey and Big Sur
Apr 4-6 Fri-Sun - Our biannual Astro 27/Geo 27 class at Pinnacles National Monument. One of the best ever. The picture page is linked here.
Apr 11 Fri eve - Graze of 8.6 16n 43+ from Carrizo Plain. This was a highlight of the re-incarnated Astro 28K: "Field Astronomy from Carrizo Plain" class.
May 9-11 Fri-Sun - Astro 28X: "Field Astronomy - Limestone Cavern Studies in the Sierra Gold Country"
May 15 Thur eve - I gave a night under the stars and planets to a scout group at Santa Cruz Gardens School. An enthusiastic group and a fun evening. Here's the photo page.
Jun 1 Sun eve 9:15pm - Occultation of 10.3 star by Angel, in twilight, from Santa Cruz. Rank=6. Right next to M91. Result: I successfully watched it visually, seeing a miss. Here's the Excel report form.
Jun 7 Sat morn Triple Asteroid Event: 1:30am Protogenia occults 12.7 star from San Diego, but rank=48 and northern uncertainty limit crosses near Paso Robles. 2:26am - Occultation of 11.9 star by Pamina (rank=80), alt=31, from Paso Robles area, same as... 3:50am - Occultation of 6.5 star by Ostena; rank=46, from Big Sur to Mono Hot Springs area. 18 deg altitude, 19+ moon. Good astrophotography weekend celebration for end of school. Results: see the photo page
July 12 Sat 2-6pm: Move-in day for our new observatory! Photos are on the Observatory construction webpage.
July 25-27 Sun morn 5:31am - Astro 28Y from Mono Lake area, built around the graze of 7.1 13n 30- 51deg alt, sun -4.5 from June Lake area. We packed a lot into this one - the photo page is here.
Aug 1 Fri eve/Sat morn - Astrphotography mini-trip by Shahram and I, to Locatelli Meadow. Got the Lagoon and M31 with the new ST4000XCM camera. Here's the page.
Aug 7 Thur eve - I joined the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club at Hidden Falls Camp to provide some astronomy for the scout groups staying there. Here's the photo page.
Aug 15 Fri eve 7pm - I provided the stargazing at Byington Winery's Stargazing Dinner once again. My guest was 1970 SSP team mate Kim Thomas and her husband - a wonderful evening.
Aug 30-Sep 1 - ImageQuest Family Camping trip to Montana de Oro. More delightful tidepool exploring, hiking and fun kids.
Sept 11-13: IOTA Annual Meeting and Metis Occultation, and Concordia Occultation. Went very well! Good meeting, and 2 asteroid events successfully taped - Metis and Concordia.
Sept 19-21 - Astro27/Geo 27 at Pinnacles National Monument.
Sept 26-28 - Astro 28Z: Field Astronomy at Mono Hot Springs. Astronomical highlight is Sunday morn 3am - Occultation of 11.8 red star by Klotilde. Nominal path . The trip was another great success. Here's the post-trip photo page.
Oct 25 Sat eve - Dark Sky Astro9 trip to the hills above Mercey Hot Springs. Great skies, and some great photos, here.
Nov 7 Fri eve - Graze of 7.3 magnitude LO Aquarii 15s of 69+ with great profile from Ferrell's place, in eve twilight. Here's the planning page , and here's the timings and photos page.
Nov 22 Sat eve - 6:45pm - Astro 9 Dark Sky trip #2 - Bonny Doon w/ SC Astronomy Club
Dec 2 Tue eve 9:05pm - Vesta occults an 11.7 star. Combined 7.1, drop =0.01mag. Good opportunity to see if you can measure that kind of drop; path crosses over Santa Cruz - a 'sure thing'. During Astro 8A class, and super easy to find - right next to Alpha Psc. Results: rushed and only got the last half of the occultation, with Vesta buried in the Kiwi display numbers.... so no data.
Dec 10 Wed eve 6:30pm - just before Astro 9 class; occultation of 12.1 combined star by Niobe. Cabrillo well inside southern 1-sigma so give it a try. Results: Saw the target in the eyepiece, but too faint with the PC164c on the 10". Skies were clean and the target overhead, so m=12 is just too faint!
Dec 10 Wed eve 11:45pm - Plieades Occultation: a 5.5 graze 15s 97% from Castroville, with good profile, and 28 min later, a 7.2 graze from 3 miles further north. Then occultation of 10.4 star by Nephele at 3:13am, decent rank, from Cabrillo Observatory. Results: Drove to Castroville, batteries died in the cold, couldn't find star among the bright limb of the moon. And Nephele was video'd for a clean miss (report).
Dec 28 Sat eve - A kayak trip for Viktoria and I at Elkhorn Slough, ended with an evening photo session on the Moss Landing Beach for the 2% cresent moon + Mercury + Jupiter conjunction. Here's the pix.
Dec 30 Tue eve 11:45pm - Occultation of 10.4 star by Corelia, from Santa Cruz. Result: I successfully video'd a miss from Cabrillo Observatory.
