September 3 Public Star Party

[Gary Richardson]

As the clouds gradually cleared throughout the day, we held our September public star party last evening.  By the time I arrived at around 7:00, there were already a few dozen people in attendance.  Over the course of the event, we had over 300 people – including many new members -- come out in the best-attended event in quite some time.  Before sunset, more than a dozen scopes were trained on the moon which gave us a great show last night.  Richard Ren used it as an initial target to get HALO up and running and gave us some great views in the process.

Phil Whitebloom rolled out the 16” Meade first gazing at the moon, then transitioning to Saturn and Jupiter.  The lines to view Saturn exceeded 35 people continuously for quite some time, eliciting a chorus of “WOW!” from its admirers.

Other members were set up to view the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter with a few training their equipment on Neptune later in the evening and sharing their views with our new members and guests.

In HALO, Richard eked out the best of every collected photon to give us amazing images of the moon, the Trifid nebula, Dumbbell nebula and the Ring nebula.

While all that was going on, Hannah Broder answered an endless stream of great questions from our guests both inside and outside HALO.

By 11:00, everyone was packing up and heading out as some light high clouds rolled in.  Richard and I closed up HALO and the park around 11:45 after downloading his collected images.  I believe we will see those images in the coming days.

What a great evening and event!  Thanks to all who helped make it such a success.

Best Regards,

Gary Richardson

[Richard Ren]

Last night the amazing sky condition beat all the weather forecasts!  The patchy clouds mostly remained at the horizon till the end of the star party.

Please see attached a couple of stacked photos of deep sky objects (M13, M16, M20, M27, and M57) taken by HALO.

Many thanks for the help of all the members who came out last night! 

Richard

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone posting topics not related to astronomy or the Howard Astronomical League will be moderated immediately and without notice. Obvious spammers will be banned.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Howard Astronomical League" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to howardastro...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAFT%3DzFGSyAeF6R34x4jyEum_nakaW5ri5FyC_-h1ZVA2DMs1Kg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Philip Whitebloom]

As President of HAL, I am going to recommend that Gary and Richard are to host all future public star parties. It appears they have the ability to create clear skies for these events. On behalf of Gary, Richard, and all of us, we would also like to thank Bob Savoy for setting up his solar system table and presenting through the entire event.

Thanks to them and all who participated.

Clear Skies!

Phil

--

[Richard Ren]

Phil,

I believe it's the combination of Gary, David, and me.  I will try to repeat this combination for at least one public star party next year to see the reproducibility.

From my past experience, I also feel a strong connection between the 16" Meade and the weather.  We should definitely have more Meade operators and summon the Meade ritual as frequently as possible!

Clear Skies!

Richard

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/1517560178.4234199.1662339090319%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Philip Whitebloom]

Yes, and of course David Stein. That was an oversight on my part which is incredible, as we were right next to each other throughout the entire event. Thank you David!

Phil

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAH3P56F3rwO_%2B3ywy6ALkx9djrt862T8DiHj_syhEj0Vyut%2BUQ%40mail.gmail.com.