Saturday, December 6, 2014

A Picnic in the Park

Today was family day in Bentsen Park and tonight was a special star party event.  Or so it was planned.  Unfortunately family day was scheduled on a full moon (bad), and the weather didn't cooperate either: cloudy (worse). But we had a decent crowd and were able to talk to the visitors about amateur astronomy equipment while the sky was still light and they could see the equipment. Later on the summer triangle peeked out from the clouds and I was able to align the Celestron. About all we could do is to center Altair and show the visitors what a small area they were looking at through the telescope by comparing the view with that on my iPad. The full moon was finally high enough about 7:30 to be visible above the treeline but then it quickly ducked behind some clouds, not to reappear the rest of the evening. The night wasn't a total loss though, the mosquitoes weren't bad, we saw a tarantula out hunting for bugs, and I got the scopes all checked out and ready for the next clear Saturday evening.  Maybe next time?

No comments: