remembrance of things past: california coast 1985-2002 (1)

A view of the Pacific Ocean under moonlight:













A successful hunt in 2000 in the National Forest:



You can compare the size of the pig with my foot (at the left). He was about 200 pounds and as fearless as a young pig can be: he charged me after i shot him the second time with my Enfield .303. The third shot finished him off. Lots of yummy pork steaks for a couple weeks after that.

eye on the sky

Last Saturday evening (8 dec 07) it cleared up for a few hours after 9pm local, and i was able to get in some viewing with scopes. My short list of objects:

Mars (60mm, 45X)
Ceres (60mm, 3-in)
17P/Holmes (3-in) - comet still quite visible, even with naked eye
M37 )
M36 ) 3 open clusters in Auriga (60mm and 3-in)
M38 )
M42 in Orion (3-in)
M31 in Andromedia (3-in)

That evening did not look for Uranus and Neptune, but i observed them one evening at mid-week last week. Soon Neptune in Capricorn will be too low in the sky to view after sunset. Also, have not tried for the increasingly-dim asteroid Pallas lately; last time was maybe three weeks ago.