Public Observing & Star Party
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During the afternoon of June 4 the atmosphere was quite unstable, but every indication was that the clouds would melt away once the sun set. And that they did. Donna arrived with about 30 people. We conducted a brief history lesson in the meeting hall about Seagrave and Skyscrapers, and also explained what they could expect to see through the telescopes. Plus we cautioned them as usual about the proper behavior around the telescopes.
The group was split into three smaller groups and they proceeded to the Clark, 12-inch Meade and 12-inch Patton telescopes to observe. Everyone got great looks at Saturn and other objects. Even after twilight the sky remained quite bright. It’s quite possible we were seeing a slight auroral glow in the atmosphere, based upon reports I saw the following day.
We also had about a dozen visitors from the general public show up as well over the course of the evening.
A great time was had by all on both nights, thanks to volunteers Tom Thibault, Conrad Cardano, Jim Hendrickson, Jim Brenek Jim Crawford, Steve Siok and yours truly.
