It was 66 F when I opened the gate at 4:15 PM and the sky was very cloudy, but looked like it was trying to clearup. We only had about 10 cars park down below as the visitors parked up on the road. We must have had a dozen or more visitors from the Irvine Ranch Nature Conservancy outreach and Hassi had a number of his students come out too.

The evening started out with us seeing Jupiter and Venus fairly well considering the clouds. We never did see the ISS make it’s low pass or any of the Iridium Flares. But when I gave my astronomy talk, the sky was clear enough for me to point out the summer triangle. We were able to show people the Double Double star off Vega and the blue & gold double, Alberio.

Later the Eastern sky cleared enough to see the Andromeda Galaxy but I was not able to see NGC 7293 (The Helix Nebula) or NGC 7662 (the Blue Snowball).

Everyone left by 8 PM and I was about to shut down, when a new member, who had just sent in his application, drove in with his wife. We talked and I showed them Alberio, The Andromeda Galaxy and then the Orion Nebula (M42) which clearly showed the 4-star Trapezium. They were stoked but it got cold (49 F) so they left and I shut the gate about 9:20 PM.

We will hope for clearer skies next star party!