CMAS held a public star party at the Brower Observatory in Whitefield. The weekend before was supposed to have been our public star party (during new Moon phase) but weather forced us to change to our rain date. Weather was extremely cold with temperatures from single digits to 10F, with occasional gusty winds blowing. Despite the cold and waxing Moon phase, an unexpected crowd of 15 or so brave souls came out to view many objects during the evening, much larger crowd than we are used to having. We were a little unprepared due to the crowd that showed up. Seeing wasn’t very good due to the gusty winds. Transparency wasn’t good towards the horizon but acceptable at zenith. It took a little time to get a few scopes setup for the public to view through. With another club member, I operated the 16″ newtonian reflector telescope in the observatory’s dome. We looked at the Beehive Cluster with a 38MM eyepiece that I had (honestly too much power, barely fit half of the cluster in the field of view) and the Orion Nebula (view was okay in my opinion, but got some oohs and aahs from several members of the public). I’m still don’t have the hang of operating the club’s 16″ newtonian. I’m so used to operating simple dobsonian mounts.
Using the club’s 10″ dobsonian telescope, we looked at the Leo Triplet. Very, very faint due to the Moon. Also tried hunting down the comet 41P but weren’t successful. Using another club member’s 70mm Vixen refractor, we looked at the craters on the Moon. Very nice views, fairly sharp and crisp given the weather conditions. Warming up in the house next to the observatory was the best part. I’m hoping we have better weather this month and those same people who came will come back. We will come prepared for our next star party.
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