Today was clear after several days of rain so I headed down to the park at dusk to look for a key. Nobody around except the border patrol so I explored for a place to observe instead. The courtyards just outside the A/V room look ok and are certainly convenient. Even with the trees I had a good view down to about 15-20° with no visible street lights. As Venus dipped into the trees I noticed Vega appearing and Jupiter high in the East. Deneb and Altair made their appearance and I started looking for the coathanger (Cr399). It wasn't quite dark enough so I waited for ISS to show at 6:50. I was afraid I had been 'had' again and it was 6:50am instead of pm. Nope, I had it right and ISS showed up right on time, rising to about 5° above Altair and traveling about 5° every 12s. It rose to about 1° above Deneb before decending slowly toward the North. It was visible in binocs just to the east of north and about 20° altitude. By then it was plenty dark and I was able to spot Sagitta in my 7x50's and nearby was Cr399, the fabled coathanger asterism. In the east, Aldeberan was rising, pointing out the Hyades, above and to the left was 'Subaru' the Seven Sisters (visible unaided), and of course, Jupiter. I was able to see 5 stars in Cassiopeia unaided and 6 stars in Cygnus. I was even able to convince myself that I was able to spot M31 the Andromeda Galaxy, unaided. It was nice in 7x50's.
All in all, while it would be nice to have a view of the western horizon, the courtyard is convenient and should work just fine for star parties.
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