Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap - Saturday April 11th, 2015

This past Saturday the sky was clear and warm throughout Orange County so when we opened the gate about 6:45 pm, there were 10 cars waiting at the gate and as it got dark, we counted a total of 28 cars and about 45 people.

When the Sun set about 7:20 pm, Venus was shining bright high in the West. As it got darker we could barely see Mars way below Venus. Jupiter was a favorite telescope target to the East and the belts were very clear as were 3 Galilean Moons. Moon Io was not visible at first but it slowly slipped in view on the west side of the big planet. Another favorite was the Orion Nebula (M42) but Comet Lovejoy was no longer visible.

Vittal set up his 8" Meade DOBS and saw a lot of Messier objects.The best view I had of several objects was through Rob's big 11" scope. Ves set up his 8" Meade LS telescope but left early after view many objects. OCA Board member Sam Saeed set up a scope and entertained his granddaughter Lorelie. Many regulars showed up including Kyle & his Dad Curt, Butch and many others.

There were a number of 1st time BSC star party people, including Thomas Walder & Miranda Culling, Alexander Avery & his Dad Daryl & Rowan Weseloh, Kelly & Paul Norris with Greg Mittenhuber, Jola Javlonska & Shamit Choksey and a few that came late. Many were from the OCA Beginner's Class were we had 29 people show up in March.

We also were honored to have my favorite OC Register Newspaper editor/columnist David Whiting show up, take pictures and enjoy looking through telescopes for the first time. He seemed to rally enjoy the star party.

We set up in the usual spot by the middle picnic table and Larry set up his big 9.25" Celestron scope next to us. He had showed us a nice view of M3 which was very bright. I was never able to view M49 but did get spiral galaxy M81 into view with M82 visible too at the other side of a 26 mm eyepiece using our 6" Meade LS telescope.

The temperature did get cold and nice as the sky was, many packed up and went home well before we had to close. A few saw Saturn rise very late but it was not very clear in the low horizon. I think we were the only ones to get a nice telescope view at 11:45 pm just before we shut down. We closed the gate just after midnight and the temperature had dropped to 46 F.

*** Someone left behind a computer tablet. Please contact me and you can arrange to pick it up. ***

Steve & Bonnie