February's Star Party in the Park

The weatherman could not have cooperated better tonight unless it was a bit less windy but the wind at least kept the mosquitoes at bay.  The temperature was a balmy short-sleeve shirt 70° and the sky was clear as a bell.  I talked to about 30 people of all ages, both local and winter texans, from about 6:00 to 7:00 and we then moved out to the patio where we had three telescopes set up.  While the group admired the Mars/Venus conjunction and Jupiter's moons, I got the scopes aligned on the conjunction and Jupiter. I then pointed out several features in Orion, the Pleiades, Taurus, Canis Major and identified Canopus low in the south. I found comet Lovejoy and several were able to find it with binoculars. A satellite passing overhead thrilled the young cub scouts that were present.
I did a three star alignment of the Celestron goto which was successful but when I set Jupiter as the target it slewed in the opposite direction.  Not sure what was going on there. I next did a solar system alignment on Jupiter which was a quick way to keep Jupiter in the FOV. Many in the group were at least somewhat familiar with the sky so everyone seemed to keep each other entertained and a good time was had by all. We shut down and were home by about 8:00.
I arrived about 4:00 to get set up. The finders were all finicky as usual.  I replaced all three batteries in the three scopes we used and had to put a penny under one battery to make a decent connection. Once I got them all aligned and tightened up they all performed pretty well.  Roy mentioned that the park has a modest budget for a new goto scope for next year.  Today was Melissa's last day. She is moving to Mother Neff state park near Waco TX.

Venus, Moon, and Mars Conjunction

It was clear tonight again and the big conjunction was high and bright at sundown. I could barely make out Mars in the glare of Venus so I grabbed my 10x50s and got all three in the FOV.  It was a gorgeous preview for tomorrow's Star Party in the Park at Bentsen RGV State Park.

Comet Lovejoy again

I've been watching Venus and Mercury the past few days.  Of course the skies have been pretty clear since Saturday night! Tonight was spectacular: clear, dry, cool but not too cold so I decided to set up the ETX.  After fumbling with the alignment a few times I was finally able to center on M45 and star hop to Lovejoy. It was  just ok and a bit disappointing.  I think the view might even be better in my 10x50s. The problem is the nearby street light and security light across the street combination. Between the two there is enough stray light to choke a horse. An improvised light shade made a noticeable difference.  A bit higher magnification would have helped too.  Other than that, the view was steady so at least Judy was able to get a peek at this fairly rare event. I finished off by reporting my sighting of Orion on Globeatnight.org.  My limiting magnitude of 4 was actually pretty good compared to all the 1s, 2s, and 3s I saw from around the world.  There was one 7 reported from a remote site in Japan.

Special Event at the Park

Tonight I gave a presentation on Astro101 at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park to about 27 visitors. I spoke for about a half hour on the basics of optical aids, star charts, and citizen science then we moved to the patio outside where we were able to see Venus and Mercury.  Most had not seen Mercury before. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and we weren't able to see much more.  A little bit of Orion was visible occasionally. The talk was well received but the highlight for me was spotting a large brown tarantula on the way in on the driveway about 5:00. Judy had fun talking to a four year old boy who had 'seen an alien'. We finished up about 8:00pm. This was not advertised and the park staff were pleased with the turnout. We plan to repeat in Feb and March.

Comet Lovejoy

Finally a clear night.  It has been cold and cloudy, even rainy, pretty much all year so far in 2015.  Today about noon it cleared off and we had a beautiful day.  Judy and I did a bit of geocaching about 4:30 and picked up several along Military Highway just south of us, including a 'thorn in my side' that has bugged me for awhile, and a D4 that was just put out recently. The D4 was laying on the ground! It had fallen from it's perch so I signed the log, took the D4, and slid it back into its hidey hole. After that we grabbed a bite to eat at Las Comales, practiced our Spanish a bit, and zipped back down to the park to see if Venus and Mercury were going to be visible during the 'event' tomorrow. They were and will be.  Beautiful in the west at 6:30 pm. They have pulled apart a bit since I last saw them a couple of weeks ago but still pretty close, less than 6 degrees. Tonight I pulled out the lounge and went looking for Comet Lovejoy.  I used M41 as a pointer and my trusty 10x50s.  Follow the line of Eta Tau and 23 Tau about 12 degrees NW to find a large-ish fuzzball.  I did not see a tail but the comet itself is fairly bright.  I admired it until clouds moved in about 10:00.  This should be quite a treat tomorrow night if the weather cooperates.

Cruising Cassiopeia

It was finally clear tonight although it was quite breezy so I pulled out my trusty lawn recliner and 10x50 Nikon binocs for a little observing.  I decided on Cassiopeia since I knew from previous experience that it was in about the right spot for my backyard observatory.  It was in good position along with Perseus and Capella.  It took awhile but I was finally able to make out all five stars in Cas unaided. I used them to find M33 in the 10x50s.  It was visible but barely. I was able to see a few mag 8 stars in Mellotte 20 around Alpha Perseus also in the 10x50s. The Pleiades was visible unaided and a nice sight in binocs.  The neighbor's security light kept blinking on and off and it was generally pretty bright out.  Disgusting.  I gave up about 9:20 and went in to finish watching Dinosaur13 on TV.  Also pretty disgusting. Two years in the pen for not filling out forms. It would be good to know what REALLY went on behind the scenes.

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?