My son and I spent the night fishing Bartlett Lake in Cave Creek Arizona
last evening with my best friend in our float tubes. The sky was incredibly
clear. We saw 20 or more shooting stars but even with 10 power binos we
were unable to see anything of the comet. It may be because the largemouth
were biting like crazy and we really could have spent more time skyward.
On a sadder note the Cave Creek Complex fire has devastated the area. We
were there after the first part of the fire and though the undergrowth had
been burned there was lots left to recover. After the fire worked its way
back through the area last week it is a virtual moon scape. Only badly
browned Saguaros and the remenants of trees are left. My 11 year old son
cried when he saw the destruction. It is very unlikely that anything will
recover from the burn and it will take 20 years or more to regrown the
desert here and we may have lost 1000's of Saguaros including the largest
ever on record the "Grand One" which was badly scrorched and burned.
Anyone on the list that has ever been to Arizona or hunted in our deserts
will tell you there is nothing like it in the world. Two lightning strikes
rekindled what some moron with a car originally started when they parked on
dry brush.
Mark M.
Phoenix AZ
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Deep Impact from Earth
Darren G. wrote:
Any word yet on wherther Earth based "mere mortal" back-yard
telescope observers were able to make out any sign of the impact?
Hola Darren,
Luck was pretty bad for most in the Americas due to cloudcover and being
low
onthe horizon. Down here in Northeast Mexico it was an obligatory
futility
that none-the-less was great fun to participate in, with a 15 degree above
the horizon impact (I had my 16X binoculars:-)). It looks like a
backyard
astronomer needed a 10-12" Dobsonian or so for a decent chance in the
Southern
portion Pacific US time zone. Reports that the comet it was so diffuse at
around 11 magnitude, that it couldn't be seen even when 12th magnitude
stars
were discernable. But that right after the impact, it in fact "appeared"
like
magic with averted vision, comments of a 1.5 or 2.0 magnitudes before and
after in the two hours.
The Hubble images showed that the tektites produced were racing out at
1800
km/hr, and there are hopes of something better tonight as it expanded,
though
I haven't seen any reports posted from Asia, and it is a little
discouraging
from what Rosetta said according to Sky and Telescope: That they saw the
2
magnitude increase, but then it was losing a two-thirds of the increase
within
a five hours.
So not so great a forecast on one hand, but that I'm sure won't stop the
legions of us who hope to get lucky tonight...
Saludos, Doug
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