a night under the stars

Last night I had our Team Leader Council meeting at school. We discussed a number of things, from the recent addition of nearly 1000 Chaldean people that have asylumed here in El Cajon, and what is being done to help the kids get into an English Learner program, to the successful carnival that made a $6000 profit.

I also brought up the fact that there is a naked eye comet passing through the constellation Perseus. Comet Holmes, brightened to 4 or 5th magnitude late last month, and is still visible to the un aided eye. With that in mind, I mentioned that the local Astronomy Association sets up Star parties at schools, and it may be a neat thing to do at ours….

Note to self: Talk about the garden ONLY!!!! that’s my committee…don’t open your mouth about anything else. the result…I’m in charge of making this star party happen.

After I got home I went out to the back yard, set up the scope, and took a look at the comet for myself. I have no way to image the ice ball, so I did what Galileo did…I drew a picture It doesn’t look like the classic comet with a long tail, it looks more like a boat and the bow wave in front.

With the dry cool night, I left the scope set up in the yard, turned the sprinklers off, and it’ll be ready to do some more observing tonight.