When we opened the gate at 4:30 pm there were only 3 cars waiting to get in probably because rain was expected Sunday and the sky was somewhat overcast.

Jupiter was the first object that became visible and we could see the two belts clearly along with the 4 Galilean moons spread out in a straight line.

When it got dark at 6 pm, we had just 7 cars parked below and ended up with  9 people on site and 8 telescopes. It got cold fast and clouds continued to form overhead. In fact we were not able to see Mars due to overcast in the west. That is also probably why were not able to see the HST pass just after 6 pm.

Jim had his big 12″ scope set up and Butch was there as usual. New member Gary was out for the first time and Sam was set up beside us sharing views of Jupiter, M31 and other objects. Sam & Trisha showed up early but she had trouble getting her Celestron working properly. Don set up next to them and had his images displayed on a video monitor.

We did enjoy viewing Jupiter but the Orion Nebula was not showing up clear enough to see all 4 stars in the Trapezium. I was able to locate Vesta but not the larger asteroid Ceres. The Double Cluster was magnificent as usual but I was not able to locate M103.

Everyone packed up and left by 7:30 pm as the only patch of sky still clear was to the East and it was very cold (34 F).

We had a very good star party considering the overcast and how very cold it became.

Steve & Bonnie