05/20/06 Black Star Canyon star party

Posted On May 22, 2006


The gate was opened at 7:15 and we ended up with about 12 OCA member cars and telescopes along with another 4 cars full of Nature Conservancy guests. The night started off with hundreds of small white puffy clouds making it quite a challenge to identify objects between the clouds. I gave an astronomy presentation to the guests and new members but was not able to point out too many star formations due to the clouds.


We ended up showing everyone all three planets (Jupiter, Saturn & Mars) along with some faint fuzzy Messier objects which would drift in and out of the clouds. By late in the evening, there were only a few large clouds with most of the sky clear. It stayed fairly warm all evening and the gate was closed at about midnight.