Short Drive -- Great Skies

Hi Astronomy Club Members:  With all the snow and cold weather lately, and a moon in the sky, observing has been put on hold for most of us.  However last night, Dec. 29th, Jean and I decided to take a 10 " Dob to Buffalo Lake, and we were well rewarded for the trip.  After about a 30 minute leisurely drive, we entered the gate at 5:45 PM since it closes at 6 PM.  We saw a great sunset and a half a dozen deer driving to the Club picnic spot.  There was still a bit of snow on the ground so I set up on the concrete slab infront of the bath rooms. It was dark enough to start observing by around 6:40 PM. After a quick look at Mars to, align the finder, I started to wander through a few of the winter favorites. Another surprise ,after more than an hour after sunset, was the lingering cone of light stretching perpendicular above the western horizon-the zodical light. We could still see a hint of it well into the evening, finally fading out of view around 8:00 PM.  By then the sky was great, seeing was excellent and so was the transparency.  The 17 mm Nagler type 4 was showing stars crisp and clean in every direction.  M 31 and 32 were exceptionally clear, M1 a bit faint in the 10" Orion and M42 stunning as usually. I then turned my attention to 17P/Holmes, which is still naked eye, and hard to see through the scope even with the lowest power eyepeice.  8P/Tuttle looked more like a comet and had a visible nucleus, although quite faint.  M33 was very close. and if you check Spaceweather.com for Dec.29th, both comets and M33 and M31 are in a wide shot.  The highlight of the evening was a fireball the likes I have not seen for many years.  I was looking at Orion, visually when a -5 magnitude meteor, maybe brighter, with pale yellow- green color, streaked south, providing a bright glow for 20 or more degrees.  The duration of visibility was about 3 seconds. It briefly changed from a fireball to a bolide in the last second and then was gone. Jean saw that last second of life and I was priviliged to see the entire event.  After calming down, we continued to observe a few more objects like the double cluster,etc. The temperature hit 20degrees when we decided to head back to town.  Overall the sky is quite nice a Buffalo, a few distant car lights show up on occasion and the warm glow of Amarillo can be see low to the N.E.  If you decide  totry this site, remember to arrive before 6 PM and wear lots of warm stuff.   

Art