(meteorobs) Bootid obs, Sharon Massachusetts, June 24/25

Richard Kramer kramer at sria.com
Fri Jun 25 10:58:54 EDT 2004


At 10:15 AM 6/25/04 -0400, you wrote:
>Conditions last night were indeed awful, Richard - between
>the heavy haze and that orange crescent moon up until 1am.
>
>But you're an inspiration for going out to observe anyway!

Lew,

In my case, it's easy enough to grab a chair and a clipboard and head over 
to my newest local observing area in the parking lot of the nearby public 
beach (< 5 min walk). I'm not too happy with the megalopolitic haze and the 
local high intensity lights, but it's better than nothing. Even with LM 
4.5, I think I'm missing a lot of meteors dimmer than LM 2 simply because 
it's so hard to be sure what one is seeing against the general orange 
backscatter. But I don't like to think of it as missing lots of them, I 
prefer to think of it as skimming the cream of the crop. :)

>Next time you plan an evening - even for a couple of hours,
>please give me a call. Maybe with some mutual encouragement,
>we can both take advantage of more of these "iffy" Boston
>nights for observing. :)

Once I get this new short course "in the can" and delivered next week, I'll 
be much more able to plan some observing.

If we are going to plan to observe around here, we should probably think in 
terms of going over to the Borderland park where LM better than 5 can 
usually be expected (along with an enthusiastic flock of mosquitos). Also, 
I'll be open to planning a jaunt over to Myles Standish. Or perhaps, if we 
are really ambitious, we might try from Marconi Beach on the cape. We would 
have to do some telephoning to the administration there, but I found them 
very cooperative when I arranged to watch the Leonids. Very decent skies 
there when the moon is down and virtually a 360 degree horizon. Main risk 
is the possibility of sea fog on humid nights. I'm also open to a session 
on Halibut Point if you think the skies are decent enough.

My own observing skills are slowly improving, but I would really enjoy the 
chance to learn a few things by watching you in action.

Regards,
Richard



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