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The star party last night at AR was a huge success. I'm not sure I have ever seen that many of us at a star party at once! It was generally a nice night, although it was a bit cool and it was very wet with dew, and the cirrus clouds didn't help the transparency any. But, we had about 20 (I'm guessing; Chas, did you get a better count?) non-members, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The Wallops launch was by far the hit of the night, though. The launch time came, and we watched but saw nothing. Then someone announced that the launch had just happened, and 15 or 20 seconds later we witnessed the rocket rising in the southeast, seeming to head straight toward Jupiter. The rocket burned out, and we waited. Several minutes went by, and nothing. I gave up on it and went back to the scope, when all of a sudden this incredibly bright, inverted "V" shaped cloud appeared in the southeast. It seemed to me that a dark linear feature went straight up the middle of it (the path of the rocket, maybe?). It quickly assumed an elliptical shape and faded from view after a couple of minutes. It was incredibly beautiful to see. There was an airplane flying in its direction just as it appeared; several of us wondered if the pilot knew about it beforehand; my guess is yes, because I'm sure he/she was briefed about airspace closings and such, but it must have been an astonishing sight to them, anyway.

We saw several satellites, including Lacross 5 and HST. The seeing was not so good early during the Jupiter shadow transit (or else my scope had not reached equilibrium), but later, the seeing was virtually rock steady and Jupiter showed a lot of detail. The people who stopped by my scope seemed to be happy with what we showed them.

I want to extend my personal Thank You to everyone who showed up. I didn't get by to talk to you all, but I appreciate that you were there. The huge crowd I was concerned about didn't materialize, yet it was gratifying to see how the members were willing to pitch in to make sure the night would be a success if it did. Let's try to repeat it next
month on October 24. That is shaping up to be a red-letter evening in HAL's history, as we might be announcing publicly our partnership with Howard County to place the Watson scope at Alpha Ridge.

Thanks,

Wayne

Thanks for the great report Wayne. I don't have a better estimate than you as to the total scopes or visitors we had. I had my 18" Obsession and I was busy showing off views to guests from before sunset until everyone cleared out. There were quite a few kids, several of whom were more excited that I about the views I showed them of Uranus and Neptune. My main faux pas last night was forgetting my step stool so we weren't able to view much above 50 degrees AZ.

Of the several satellites we saw, once of them was a nice -4mag Iridium Flare. I also heard a few ooh and aahs for meteor sightings but I seemed to always be looking through the eyepeice when that happened.

Unlike many other star parties, I didn't see anyone taking photos. If you have any, send them to me and I'll post them on the website: astropix@howarastro.org. A nice YouTube link was posted on the e-mail group of the NASA Black Brant XII / CARE Rocket Lanch and noctilucent cloud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb45uBaj2Mc

Chas - 9/19 Host