It was 45F and very windy when I opened the BSC gate at 4:30 pm yet we ended up with 15 cars full of brave bundled up star gazers. Those who arrived by 5 pm were treated to seeing Comet McNaught for about 15 minutes as the sun went down, thanks to Val who I believe spotted it first. The comet could be seen by the naked eye, binoculars and we even had a few scopes trained on the brightest comet in 30 years.

Hassi Norlen had the comet in his scope and mentioned that he saw it on his flight home from a family vacation in Africa (see the OCA website for his comet pictures and some from other members). Some of the children of one member were having fun spotting satelites slowly transiting the early night sky.

The sky was very clear Saturday evening and even binocular viewing was great…showing lots of nebulosity in the Orion Nebula and many other objects. But it was so cold that most everyone packed it in by 9 pm…except for a few brave souls Neil, Attillio and late arrival Travis Ray & son Brandon. Finally we all went home and I closed the gate at 10:20 pm…temp was 35 F…Brrrrr!