Impromptu Star Party Report for September 7, 2026

[Ernie Morse]

Hi all,

Well, we had unexpected clear skies on Saturday and last night the balance was restored with unexpected clouds, at least until midnight.  Eight HAL members showed up and tried to make the most of the bad conditions.

Keith brought his Celestron 130mm Starsense Explorer Newtonian and Tony was using his Celestron 8" SCT, upgraded with a new hand controller.  Tony showed Wayne and I a nice view of Saturn through a momentary break in the clouds.

José G. imaged M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) with his Seestar S50 while Ken continued to learn how to operate his newly-acquired S50.

Lee and Marianne also had a new hand controller for their Celestron NexStar 6 SE, along with a new Starsense AutoAlign camera.  Unfortunately, they had an issue with the camera refusing to exist initialization mode.

Wayne was imaging the spiral galaxy NGC 7331 and its new  supernova with his 8" RCT.

I had a detailed observing plan to execute with my Celestron 8" Starsense Explorer Dob, but that plan did not survive contact with the clouds.  I was able to briefly view the globular cluster M13 and found and split a double star, Kruger 60, that had previously eluded me.  I was later able to catch two doubles in Aquila, 15 Aql and 57 Aql.  I really like 57, as the two evenly-matched stars both appear to me as a beautiful icy blue-white.  I got in some imaging of NGC 7331 through the clouds with my Vespera, followed by a quick capture of Stock 2 (Muscleman Cluster) at a time when it was situated to just fit in the Vespera's field of view.

There was some miscommunication about the gate closing protocol amongst multiple people leaving at the same time, so I'll add some clarifying comments in my next impromptu announcement.

I left at 11:45, locking the gate behind me so that Wayne could finish up taking his flats.  His report on the rest of the night is included below.

Ernie

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ernie wrapped up and was leaving at about 11:45pm, and he jokingly
remarked "It'll probably clear up as soon as I leave."  "I certainly
hope so," I chuckled.  He drove away and I finished my flats for the
throw-away data I had collected through the clouds.  Before starting to
tear things down, I assessed the clouds and thought that it did look a
little better, so I decided to give it a few minutes to see what the
clouds would do.  And lo, miracles of miracles, it cleared up nicely
just after midnight!  I restarted my imaging of NGC 7331 and its
supernova, and collected data until 3:40am.  I had already gotten my
flats, so I simply stopped and tore down my setup, completing at about
4:30am and closing the gate at 4:45am.  I will note that the night
became very dewy, and I had to stop and clear off my secondary mirror
with a hair dryer so I could continue imaging.

Thanks to Ernie for hosting last night, and to the HAL members who
endured an unfortunately poor evening of observing.

Wayne