Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap – Saturday October 18th, 2014

We arrived at the BSC star party site at 5:40 pm and found 6 cars lined up and waiting. Had the gate open by 5:45 pm and by the time we parked, a lot more cars drove down to the parking area.

Before the sun set, I put my Meade 6″ LightSwitch through a manual alignment and then directed it to show Saturn which was not visible yet. Later we viewed all the other visible planets: Mars, Uranus & Neptune. We also viewed double star Albireo and the Andromeda Galaxy and every object in the “Tonight’s Best” Meade software tour. When Auriga came up we also viewed the Deep Sky open clusters M38, M36 & M37.

OCA President Greg set up his big Celestron and brought out his daughter Katie and Paul. Katie & Paul were the first to spot the Iridium Satellite that flared about 8 pm. We even had master surveyor Bill Appleton show up.

Rob Mckenzie set up his big scope and showed us a great view of M13 and the Ring Nebula, M57. Kyle and his Dad Curt were having fun viewing the planets, etc until their batteries ran dry. Carol Espinoza & Ciro brought Sofia (just 6) and sister Bella who hung out with Kyle. Sam & was set up next to us and said he had a great time.

Larry set up his 9.25″ big Celestron next to us and searched long and hard for the comet near Mars. He found one object that was probably that comet. He also had his grandsons come out with their mom.

Val showed up a little late without a scope but he helped numerous people who were very grateful. Don Stoutenger and Mary set up a scope with video monitor and Keven Andrade set up his new bigger scope next door.

New member Ameeta attended showed up again as did Jonathan Hankey, Roger Cotton and Tyson Lee (this time with a telescope). Some first time people were Bill and Rex, maybe some of the others mentioned next: Eric, Scott Young and Minoo with his wife.

Hope I didn’t miss anyone and apologize for any names that are not spelled correctly.

We ended up having 25 cars come out and counted about 50 people. The gate was closed about 11:40 pm after the last person left and the temperature was a cool 54 F.

Steve