Another successful astronomy viewing at the Cuivre River State Park beach parking lot for the campers there last night. I guesstimate we had over 100 Cub Scouts, their parents and siblings, and campers looking through four telescopes that Mike Clemente, Jim and Yvonne Roe, Jim Twellman, and myself had set up. It was very dark there and because the Moon hadn't risen yet, the Milky Way was very easily seen. We were also treated to the International Space Station (ISS), two Iridium flares, and a Russian satellite flyover. One of the Iridium Flares was possibly the brightest I've ever seen, probably bright enough to have been seen in broad daylight. Some of the objects viewed were Vega, Albireo, M57, M13, M31-32, Jupiter, M27, M15, the Veil Nebula, The Double Cluster, and the Owl Cluster. We pulled out around 10:00 pm. John Sgouros The event started around 7:45 with an excellent lead-in star lecture by Jim Roe. The crowd was VERY pleased with the "Called Shots" on the mag -8 flares and the ISS flyby too. The few stragglers that hung around until just before 1opm got to see Jupiter and its' moons for dessert. We especially noted to those folks that we do this "every Friday night" at Broemmelsiek. This beach location is far from perfect, but it is workable. North-South is very good, but trees block 50% of the sky East & West. We had no real problems with traffic, but had headlight issues with cars coming into the lot. In addition to the Scouts and their families, it was reported that we also had guests from the Sierra Club who were also camping (at Camp Cuivre). - Jim T. |