April 18, 2009 Member's Only Star Party Report

We really had a great star party last night. There were a few clouds around at sunset, but they didn't interfere with our views of Mercury and Saturn. By the time it was fully dark, the clouds had blown away and we had a warm, clear night for viewing. By 10:30 or so it was nearly as perfect a night as Friday.

There were at least 20 telescopes set up and there were more HAL members than telescopes. In addition to my own observing, during my intervals of wandering around I got a chance to see Cor Caroli, M44, M81/M82, M3, M13, Mercury, Saturn (along with Titan, Rhea and Dione) and M57 in other members' scopes, and I'm sure that was just a small sampling of the observing that was going on.

I observed well past midnight, and when I was ready to go Aaron Darby was still looking for a couple of Herschel objects, so he volunteered to lock up for me. I hope he found them before the clouds came back!

We have a busy schedule over the next two weeks. On Thursday, we have Skywatch at Howard Community College (the weather forecast looks great). Next Saturday, we have a public star party at Alpha Ridge. And the following week, on Saturday May 2, we have our class with Howard County Parks and Recreation, Lord of the (Edge-On) Rings. I hope many of you will be able to come to one or more of these!

Clear skies,
David

Photos Compliments of Ed Crawford