[AZ-Observing] Garden Lakes star Party Thursday Night

The Garden Lakes star Party Thursday night went well. While I did not 
get a good count I would say there was well over 50 people (mostly 
young kids) there.

Despite some clouds the sky was mostly clear and the kids go to see 
lots of objects. There were three telescopes (all refractors) from 6" 
down. Al and Jack both had telescopes plus mine.

The first star to appear was Sirius and the anxious crowd lined up to 
see the dazzling light show that Sirius put on due to atmospheric 
scintillations. Next Al got Saturn in his scope and the crowd moved 
there. Saturn was so popular that poor Al never got to go to any 
other object as there was always a dozen or more kids/people in line 
to view.

I could not find Saturn in my 6". Well the reason was because it was 
so high in the sky and at that position the finder and eyepiece of 
the 6" are about a foot off the ground. After laying on my back for 
awhile, I still could not get Saturn in the finder. I did get M44 so 
since Al and Jack were handling Saturn, I thought I would let folks 
view the Beehive open cluster. No need for the step stool. Even 
little kids had to bend down to view it.

Next I zeroed in on Betelgeuse and let folks see the fiery orange 
giant star. Explaining the size of it and that if it were our Sun the 
Earth's orbit would be millions of miles beneath the surface drew 
some exclaim.

As it became darker I swung down and looked at M42. Orion was getting 
low in the West  so I felt that would be the next best target. More 
that one person learned the Orion constellation that night.

The last object was one of my favorite for star parties, Mizar. I 
have people try to see two stars in the handle of the Big Dipper. 
Many people in their 20's and younger say they can. I surely cannot. 
I have them look though the finder first and then they can easily see 
the two main stars. Then for the surprise let them look through the 
main optics and see the small double star. I think a few people also 
learned how to find the North star that night.

Just before wrapping up Jupiter popped up in the Southeast so Jack 
and I swung around for a quick view. The bands and 4 moons could be 
seen easily, but being that low over Phoenix the image was not good. 
People still enjoyed the view, however.

Jeff

-- 
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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