Impromptu Star Party Report for June 7, 2026

[Ernie Morse]

Hi all,

Seven HAL members enjoyed an outstanding night for observing at Sunday night's impromptu star party.  Transparency was the best that I've measured since August of last year (SQM-L reading of 19.40 mpas @ 12:30 AM).  I forgot to look at a magnified star to evaluate seeing, but it seemed just a little worse than the last time, so probably still a 3 on a 5-point scale.  Temperature was in the 70s, winds were calm and the sky was perfectly clear.

José intended to use his recently-purchased Celestron 9.25" SCT, but he forgot a spacer that he needed for his camera attachment, so he fell back to using his Carbonstar 150 Newtonian to continue his imaging of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy).  He was simultaneously giving Mike a crash course in astrophotography.  Mike has started an astronomy club at a senior living center and was working with a donated Askar 102mm refractor.  Everything went well and he obtained his first astrophoto of the galaxy M106.  José is a great teacher and Mike seemed to be a quick study, so I hope his club members will soon be enjoying imaging the wonders of the night sky!

Danielle started out with some narrowband imaging of IC 1396 (Elephant Trunk Nebula) with her 50mm Williams Optics Redcat refractor and a new ZWO camera.  She switched to the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae (M8 and M20) later in the night.

Rich imaged several targets with his Seestar S50, but I'm having a hard time remembering them!  I think the globular M13 was in there, and I know that he captured NGC 5907, the Knife Edge Galaxy in Draco.  I forgot to ask if its recent supernova is still visible.  He finished up with the globular cluster M5 in Serpens.

Ian was imaging a mosaic of Markarian's Chain of galaxies (which is anchored by the bright elliptical galaxies M84 and M86) in Virgo with his Seestar S50.  He had imaged part of it with a single pointing at a recent impromptu but decided to try it again with a mosaic to get the whole chain.

Sundar arrived a little later in the evening, but was able to observe Jupiter for about 5 minutes with his 130mm Starsense Explorer Newtonian before it sank below the treeline.  He also browsed the sky with binoculars and found a large open cluster which I think was probably the Beehive (M44).  He thought he wasn't going to be able to align his Starsense Explorer app because it was too dark to use a fixed ground object, but I suggested that he try it with a bright star, which is what I usually do.  He was able to align it with Vega and successfully observed several targets, including M39 (open cluster), M81 (Bode's Galaxy), double star Albireo, globular cluster M10 and Collinder 399 (Coathanger cluster).

I started the evening with observations of several double stars, including the 54s (Leonis, Virginis and Hydrae), 42 Leonis Minoris, Zubenelgenubi (alpha Librae) and mu Librae.  Views of galaxies M94 and M106 were unimpressive, despite the great transparency.  I had better luck with the Scorpius globulars M4 and M80 when they were close to meridian transit at the end of the night.  I used my Vespera II EAA scope to image M5, followed by a field including NGC 4631 (Whale Galaxy) and NGC 4656 (Hockey Stick Galaxy).  The Whale Galaxy also has a tiny companion galaxy, NGC 4627, which I call the Bowl Of Petunias Galaxy, as they are falling through space together, each having their own thoughts.

I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a rabbit on the way to the park, and the Dob OTA slid forward off the back seats and slammed into the back of the front seats!  Fortunately, the mirrors still seemed to be collimated and there was no apparent damage to the focuser or the Starsense Explorer mirror dock.

Thanks to José and Danielle for sticking around for a few minutes while I finished packing up and locking up at the end of the night.  We left the park at 1:00 AM.

Ernie