07/25/09 BSC star party recap

Posted On July 28, 2009


The temperature was still 72F at 7:30 PM and had only dropped to 66F at midnight.


We had a number of guests from the Irvine Ranch Nature Conservancy who seemed to have a good time. No one was able to see the ISS Toolbag float over at 8:15 PM but we all saw the ISS station pass over at 9:06, right on time. Many had never seen it before.


Saturn was poorly placed for viewing in the West and pretty well washed out by the Sun and the Moon. But Jupiter came up about 9:30 and was spectacular with the belts showing up well after it rose a bit. But one of the moons was hidden by the big planet. It must have been washing out Neptune as we couldn’t make it out as a disk, being only 1.5 degrees from Jupiter.


The Ring Nebula was clear as was the pretty double star Alberio. We missed the late Iridium sattelite pass at 10:47 (forgot to set my alarm) but did see a few meteors. M4 near Antares was pretty washed out no one found the Mag 8 Comet.