SJAA Public Star Party

[acc]

Attended the San Jose Public Star Party last Sat. The event was held at Coyote Reservoir, which is about 1 hour drive from Silicon Valley. The sky is fairly dark, with the milk way easily visible.

For the first time, I saw the spiral structure of the Whirlpool without using averted vision on my dob. This same galaxy through an 18" Obsession was spine-tingling.

Left the place about 1am, and it was a bit unnerving driving through the country roads and hoping my car doesn't break down!

cheers
cc

[kayheem]

Hi CC,

How does it compare with Mersing?

Kay Heem

[acc]

Mersing at its best is better. Coyote has a large light dome in the south extending to 30 deg alt, and the Milky Way is slightly washed out over its entire span. The huge advantage of Coyote is that clear skies occur much more frequently.

[Canopus Lim]

I was at San Jose for 6 mths during my Industrial Attachment. The skies are usually blue ( I mean real blue.. no clouds at all) during summer.The night sky is more or less guaranteed to be good unlike in South East Asia where the sky is very unpredictable. I usually go to Mt. Hamilton (where the Lick Observatory is) for observation. The milky way can be seen but it is not also that clear (as San Jose city is rather well lit) but the chance of having observable skies is much higher than in tropical places like Mersing. It is rather fun driving up and down the mountain at night.. sort of like Initial D feeling.