[AZ-Observing] Two nights and Astronomy Day at GRCO

I drove down to GRCO at the Water Park in Gilbert for the activities 
Friday and Saturday evenings.

"Second Friday" Star Party at the Riparian
Friday afternoon I drove down with my old friend, Dr. Keith Parizek... 
This was his first visit to GRCO, and he was impressed with the 
facilties.  (Given the quantity and size of the various scopes that 
Keith has in his several domes, at Rio Verde and Alpine, that is a 
compliment from an expert !)  We had dinner at a nice little restaurant 
(new to me) near Greenfield and Main St. in Mesa/Gilbert.
We mainly hung out at the GRCO dome, but we did stroll over to the north 
parking lot to kibitz with the other EVAC folks and their scopes.  It 
was only a modest crowd of EVACers this time (set up as usual next to 
the parking lot)... Randy Peterson with his 10 inch LX200, Don Wrigley 
with his big Dob on an equatorial tracking platform, ??? with his neat 
Vixen short tube refractor and mount (verrry nice setup), and several 
others (names lost in the dark)... Good views of the planets, the Moon, 
and some double stars... iota Cancri in particular was popular -- nice 
colors, like Albireo.
Up at the dome we had a fair crowd (over 100, I did not get the exact 
no.) during the evening, viewing "the usual suspects" with the 16 
inch... The Moon, Saturn, Mars, and several bright star clusters.... The 
evening was very clear.  I set up my little 4 inch Meade SCT on a geared 
tripod head on the walkway next to the dome, and let the folks look at 
the Moon, while the 16 was pointed at various objects.  Martin Thompson, 
Peter Argenziano, Carlos Alvarez, and Riparian volunteer "Bill", were 
the operators.  As usual, we had a stream of visitors starting before 
sunset.
Claude Haynes did the lecture on "The Seasons" over in the Library 
(assisted by "Bill", Riparian volunteer), with only a small crowd attending.

Saturday -- Astronomy Day
During the day, Martin Thompson and Claude Haynes entertained the 
public, showing them the Sun.  Evidently about 50 people visited during 
daylight.  Claude had a table set up with EVAC info brochures and 
activity sheets for the kids outside the dome.
I arrived later in the afternoon (ca. 4:30 pm) and stayed at the dome 
answering questions from the visitors, with Martin, Chuck Crawford, Dave 
Coshow, and another Riparian volunteer (sorry, name escapes) running the 
main scope.  We had the Coronado H-alpha filtered solar scope working 
until sunset.  But not much going on, on the Sun... We got on the Moon 
with the 16 inch during daylight, then transitioned to the planets and 
so forth as it got dark.  Claude Haynes popped in for a little while 
again in the evening. We had a good crowd, tally was 129 folks through 
the dome.  Again, a very clear and enoyable evening.  Weather and 
temperature were perfect, except for a few mosquitoes in the evening.  
Lots of birds and wildlife around the lakes, and some deep-throated 
bullfrogs advertising for companionship in the evening.

Gene Lucas
(17250)




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