Impromptu Star Party Report for December 12, 2025

[Ernie Morse]

Hi all,

Three HAL members turned out on a chilly winter night for an impromptu star party at Alpha Ridge Park last night.  The temperature was 26 degrees when I took my sky quality meter readings at 8:35 PM, but there wasn't any wind to speak of, so it was pretty tolerable.  Skies were clear for the whole evening, with transparency and seeing both seeming a little below average.

Welcome to Evelyn, who attended her first HAL impromptu!  She had intended to image M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with a Canon DSLR and a 200 mm f/4 lens on a 3D-printed mount, but it was uncomfortably close to the zenith by the time she was ready to start, so she switched over to the North America Nebula (NGC 7000, Caldwell 20) in Cygnus instead.

Mike attended to test out his new mono camera.  He took test images of the Pleiades with the camera and his 122mm Svbony refractor.

I observed objects in Cepheus with my 8" Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob, including double stars (beta, delta, kappa, xi and omicron Cephei), open clusters (NGCs 6939, 7160, 7380, 7510 and M52) and a challenging planetary nebula, the Bow-Tie Nebula (NGC 40, Caldwell 2).  I imaged the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) and the cluster NGC 6939 with my Vespera II EAA scope.  The Fireworks Galaxy is so named because it's had 10 supernovae in the past century (most recently in 2017), which is roughly 10 times the rate in our galaxy.  No supernova last night, though, so no fireworks for me.

I locked up HALO and the park gates and departed at 9:15 PM.

Ernie