Well, our club took a ride out to the newest observation site in our area. It is on a 97,000 acre private wild life preserve. Altitude of 2,250' and clear view in all directions.
Ten members attended this Star Party and scopes were from 4.5" to 20.3".
We had pretty good skies with many objects available for viewing. One member claimed 105 objects for the night. My self it was mor like 20-25. :^)
We were able to see the Horsehead which was pretty unusual for our area. The Orion Nebula was awesome.
I tried all night to resolve the "G" and "H" stars in the Trapezium with my 12.5" DOB, but no luck, just the "A" though "F" stars.
Saturn and Jupiter were both wonderful, with one transit of a moon for Jupiter. Venus even looked pretty good! Di not look at Mars, not sure why it slipped my observation.
Looked at quite a few Messier objects and a few NGC's. Found two double clusters of at least side by side clusters that I did not identify. They were both open clusters with a small more distant globular next to them. One was one the other side of Cassiopeiae from the Perseus Double Cluster. The other was near Tarus. Not sure what I was, should it to two people and they could not identity them.
The temperatures were very mild and the wind was intermittant with no really strong gusts. The skies were quite clear and seeing was may a 6. Some atmospheric disturbance at times but only in portions of the sky.
We packed it up at 10:45pm, a little early but the drive back was one hour.
Hope your evening was as good.
Floyd
Ten members attended this Star Party and scopes were from 4.5" to 20.3".
We had pretty good skies with many objects available for viewing. One member claimed 105 objects for the night. My self it was mor like 20-25. :^)
We were able to see the Horsehead which was pretty unusual for our area. The Orion Nebula was awesome.
I tried all night to resolve the "G" and "H" stars in the Trapezium with my 12.5" DOB, but no luck, just the "A" though "F" stars.
Saturn and Jupiter were both wonderful, with one transit of a moon for Jupiter. Venus even looked pretty good! Di not look at Mars, not sure why it slipped my observation.
Looked at quite a few Messier objects and a few NGC's. Found two double clusters of at least side by side clusters that I did not identify. They were both open clusters with a small more distant globular next to them. One was one the other side of Cassiopeiae from the Perseus Double Cluster. The other was near Tarus. Not sure what I was, should it to two people and they could not identity them.
The temperatures were very mild and the wind was intermittant with no really strong gusts. The skies were quite clear and seeing was may a 6. Some atmospheric disturbance at times but only in portions of the sky.
We packed it up at 10:45pm, a little early but the drive back was one hour.
Hope your evening was as good.
Floyd
[SIZE="Large"][/SIZE][COLOR="Blue"][/COLOR] Floyd Blue
Amateur Imager
