FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Dreamy Draw Public Star Party

[Jeff Hopkins <phxjeff@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the report Rick,

I think part of the problem was a late announcement of the star party.

I was committed to a star party in Anthem so I could not make it. The 
Anthem Star Party went well, They actually turned off area lights for 
us. It was in the community center area. I did not get an exact 
count, but I would estimate several hundred people came by. We had 
everything from an 80mm Meade (the new one) to a 20" DOB.

I got there early and set up my 6" refractor. I used a sun filter and 
we looked at the Sun while it was still up. There are some 
interesting sunspots right now, two large ones with several smaller 
ones making a trail. The sky was lovely as was the temperature. After 
dark we looked at the Moon. What was interesting was looking at the 
Moon with binoculars and seeing the earthshine and Pleiades. The Moon 
had early passed through the cluster, before sunset. It was a great 
star party.

Jeff


At 09:56 -0700 4/2/06, Rick Tejera wrote:
>Last night was my first trip to the Dreamy Draw Rec Area for a star party. I
>got there early and noticed I was it. After a while a few folks were asking
>if I was with the "star Group". Finally Park Ranger Nichole arrived and
>directed me to where the event would be held. It was beginning to look like
>it was gonna be a solo performance when Dave Fredericksen showed. There was
>a pretty sizable crowd waiting for dark to arrive. Dwight Bogan showed up
>shortly to round out the Astronomer contingent.
>
>As usual lots of folks looked at the moon, Saturn, a few doubles and had
>lots of questions. About an hour people started to ask me when the "Program
>was going to begin" Program? What Program?" Seem last time out, Jack gave a
>brief presentation about astronomy. Well for the second time in a week, I
>was called don to sub for a speaker. I gave a tour of the sky, pointing out
>constellations with the laser. I showed them how to find different
>constellation using various celestial pointers (arc to Arcturus, etc). After
>the talk, it was back to the eyepiece. As you'd expect Saturn was the
>favorite object of the night.
>
>My guess is about 200 or so showed up. We stayed till about 2130 when the
>crowd finally dissipated. Ranger Nicole had printed up some star maps and
>SAC membership forms, to give out. She told me that quite a few folks took
>the membership forms. Hopefully we'll see a few of these folks in the
>future.
>
>Up Next: May 6th, Thunderbird.
>
>Clear Skies
>
>Rick Tejera
>President
>Editor SACnews
>Saguaro Astronomy Club
>Phoenix, Arizona
>saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
>www.saguaroastro.org

-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
Counting Photons
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html
Hopkins Phoenix Observatory
7812 West Clayton Drive
Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A.
www.hposoft.com
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