We had a clear, dark, mild temperature night at Black Star Canyon this past Saturday evening. Besides the usual OCA members that come out to BSC, there were a number of visitors that the Irvine Land Conservancy Trust invited and a number of Hassi’s college students. I counted 25 cars in the parking lot and there were also a number of cars up on Black Star Canyon Road.

The Iridium flare at 8:54 PM was very bright and we saw a number of satellites all night long. Venus was bright but not very interesting to view but Saturn sure was with a number of moons easily seen at 200X power. I saw some spectacular views of M13.

A number of members went galaxy hunting and I noticed that Hassi was showing his class galaxies M65 & M66. M81 & M82 were visible in the same eyepiece. I even found minor planet Vesta smack in the middle of Leo the Lion’s head.

I closed the gate around midnight when the temperature showed 45 F so it did get cold.