Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap – Saturday October 22nd, 2016
 
The sky was warm & fairly clear throughout Orange County so when we arrived at the gate about 5:30 pm and we were not surprised to see there were at least 7 OCA Member cars waiting at the gate. But we were surprised to see that there were Nature Conservancy people already on site and telling me they had an event scheduled that evening. They checked the calendar and saw our star party was scheduled so they moved their event to another location.

After the Nature Conservancy people left the BSC site, we were able to bring the OCA cars into the site and set up telescopes. We had 22 cars come in by 6:30 pm and by the end of the night, we had counted a total of 25 cars and about 45 people that had come to the BSC star party.

The first object that became visible after the Sun set was Venus high on the western horizon. Later Mars & Saturn became visible behind the Scorpion’s 3-star head. By the end of the evening, some of us even viewed Uranus & Neptune so we got to see 5 planets once again. We had Cesar & Simon out taking video of the star party that will be edited and put on the OCA website. This was their first star party and they had fun looking at objects through the telescopes.

We set up in the usual spot by the middle picnic table and shared views of Venus, Mars, Saturn and even Uranus along with Alberio, M31 & M36. Sam set up next to us by the 3rd table and was quick to view Venus, then later shared views of Saturn & M31 to his guests Emily, Cam & Issac and others. A bit further away, Kelly set up her scope and showed her guests David White & Cathy Saturn and Alberio. Larry set up his 9.25 Celestron on the other side of us and shared views of many objects including the Double Double star near Vega and the best view of Neptune’s small disc I saw all night. Near Larry was Dave Murphy who shared views of M6, M8, M22, NGC 869 & 884 (the Dbl Cluster).

We had many people set up scopes across the way including Val Akins nearest the parking area who shared nice views of Alberio, Uranus, some red variable stars and others through his classic 6” Celestron scope. Roger Cotton was set up next to Val and showed me a shimmering view of Mars in his big Celestron scope. Robert Cunningham set up a bit farther along with his guest David Kim. Nearby, Matthew Dahms set up his 18” DOBS and shared views of many objects including M110 & Saturn. Eric Burgdorf had a nice view of the Ring Nebula.

Ves Snelson was the only one to set up in the area beyond the 2nd gate. But his 8” Meade LS was giving him mechanical trouble with his 2” diagonal so he left early. Bill Johnson brought his new big Orion 16” DOBS” in his “Best A/C & Heating” truck parked just before the first turning circle.

Also attending was Marcelo Reginato and 8 year old Helena. New member Dana Burr was out for the first time and brought his son Luke. Also new member John Collett attended with his wife Beckie and they had a great time. Others that came without a scope were John Creigh, Dave Leggett and his guest Barret Schmelz, Bruno, his wife Audrey and daughter Andrea, Greg & Denice Spalter and our guest Doris.

Please forgive us if I missed anyone or we got your names spelled wrong. Bonnie tries hard to log in everyone and get your names right. We closed the gate at 11:30 pm after the last person shut down and left.

Steve & Bonnie