Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap – Saturday August 31st, 2013

We had 15 cars and about 25 people come out to the BSC star party last Saturday evening even though it was partly cloudy. The high heat of the day dropped down to 80 and later into the 70’s so was comfortable.

Everyone could see Venus as the Sun set and later Saturn was visible. The Hubble Space Telescope went by under Venus right on time just past 8 pm.

The Deep Sky objects above the “Teapot” were visible later as it became darker and we showed visitors M22, M28 & M8, Others were observing the Smoke Ring M57 and double star Albireo. Later we viewed M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

But about 10 pm, the entire sky clouded over covering Sagittarius last so everyone shut down and went home. It was a good star party and we closed the gate just before 11 pm after the last member left and the temperature was 74 F.

Steve