Impromptu Star Party Report for Tuesday, October 6, 2026

[Wayne Baggett]

Hi,

It was a nice night for observing at Alpha Ridge Park on Tuesday night. 
The skies were clear and the temperature was cool, starting out at about
45F with no wind at all.  However, the humidity was high and dew was
present.  The seeing was above average while the transparency was maybe
a little below average.  The sky brightness was OK, but a little on the
bright side for a clear, moonless night.  The darkest reading on my Sky
Quality Meter was 19.8 mag/square-arcsec at the zenith at about 11:30pm.

Ten HAL members came out to enjoy the moonless skies.  Most members were
imaging, but Tony was doing some visual observing with a Celestron
8-inch SCT.

On the imaging side, there were a variety of smart scopes in use. Shaun
imaged the Dumbbell Nebula (M27, in Vulpecula) with a Dwarf 3, while
Bill was observing the North America Nebula in Cygnus with his Vespera,
and the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946 -- on the boundary between Cygnus and
Cepheus) with a Celestron Origins smart scope.

The remaining observers were using more conventional rigs for their
imaging.  Joey used his ZWO FF90 90mm refractor to image the Iris
Nebula, a reflection nebula in Cepheus.  Dan used an Svbony 503 80mm
refractor to photograph the Galaxy M33 in Triangulum.  Jose U. started
an imaging program on the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with his Askar SQA 106
refractor, while Todd used his William Optics 91mm refractor to image
M33.  Robert imaged NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula) in Cygnus with his Askar
71 refractor.  Michael had issues with his off-axis guider and didn't
get any imaging done.  I continued imaging the Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380)
in Cepheus with narrowband filters and an 8inch RC scope.  I finished
observing at about 12:30am and locked the park gate at 1:30am.

It was a nice turnout of members on a nice night.  It was good seeing
you all and I hope to see you (and your great images!)  again soon.

Wayne