October 2007 Events

Moonstruck Saturday at Alpha Ridge was a resounding success. We had a great group of registered participants attend, they were really engaged in the presentations, the viewing, and the sketching. The sky was cloud-free and pristine.

The formal presentations by Chris Todd, David Stein, and Teresa Palomar were first rate; Derek and Ben Eve's scale model of the Earth/Moon size/distance relationship was way cool; and Teresa demonstrated how to sketch lunar features and her resulting depiction of the huge and beautiful crater Clavius was jaw-dropping.

We had 5 telescopes set-up as "viewing stations" and the folks running the viewing stations highlighted particular features that were discussed in the presentations. They did a marvelous job of helping people see some of the very unique aspects of the lunar surface. A very big thank you to Eddie, James, Chas, and Steve.

Thanks also to all the other folks who came and set-up scopes, we a good sized crowd and those scopes provided a perfect compliment to the more directed viewing done at the viewing stations.

Marc

Oct. 13th Star Party

I have 6 new photos from there in my section of the HAL photo gallery--two of the moon setting against the ridge, a sequence of four photos of the sun where a bird flies by it (no solar activity I could see), and one each of the Double Cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy, and
the Blue Snowball (that looks green for some reason).

Last night was a clear night until about 11 when the clouds started rolling in. The milky way was visible at the zenith, and all 7 stars of the little dipper could be seen. Dew wasn't the problem that it was last week. Of course, I forgot to bring a jacket and it was kind
of cool, but it didn't bother me much, as I was running around the scope checking the camera and drinking too-strong Safeway-brand coffee from the thermos (and I even used less than what the instructions said. Unless...I used a tablespoon, and just maybe it said "two teaspoons per 8oz water"--that would explain it I tried to put 2 tblsp per 8oz, and ran out of room in the percolator's chamber).

Todd

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I didn't do a count of cars or scopes, but it was definitely less well attended than the previous week's event; there were only about 5 cars on the far side of the row of parking spaces, and I was the only observer setup on that side. It was probably on average for recent AR events. I think the public mostly stayed home due to the chilly temps.

Viewing was pretty good, with decent transparency and OK seeing. The milky way was visible in Cygnus at the zenith, but didn't extend down to Saggitarius or Casseopeia.

I did all my observing with my 15x70 binos, and bagged about a dozen Messier objects, including M32, which surprised me. Couldn't see M110, though. I only need another 18 or so for the Bino Messier certificate.

Don would have enjoyed viewing the tumbling satellite I found near M31 at about 10 pm. While observing M32, I saw this flashing thing that I thought at first was an airplane, but it was moving really slowly through the FOV. I must have watched it for a good 5 minutes, wondering what it was. Geoff Chester reported on the NOVAC list that he had observed it as well, and showed it to a number of people, and after some research, discovered that it was satellite Cosmos 2388. Pretty cool!

Chris

Oct. 6th Star Party

Well last night's star party at Alpha Ridge went pretty well despite
dew causing some issues. I counted more than 20 scopes and several
binocular observers on the main grassy area. There were even a few
others in the middle grassy area of the parking lot because the main
area was full!

The Sun reporter was present taking lots of pictures so I guess we
should check the paper for any mentions.

Observing-wise, the ISS with its long bright pass overhead and the
Iridium Flare were big hits. Jupiter was also a favorite target for
observers. I also overheard several folks working on AL Certificates,
so be ready for some logs soon Teresa!

The next HAL star party is scheduled for Oct 13th with Eddie being the
host. Hope to see you there!

Aaron

Moonstruck (Oct. Star Party Reports below)

Oct. 13th Star Party

Oct. 6th Star Party

Article Published in 10/10/2007 Baltimore Sun