Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap – Saturday June 20th, 2015
 
This past Saturday the sky was clear and warm throughout Orange County so when we opened the gate about 7:30 pm, there were 16 cars waiting at the gate. By the end of the night, we counted a total of 27 cars and about 45 people.

When the Sun set about 8 pm, Venus was shining bright high in the West with a crescent Moon to the left. As it got darker we could see Jupiter in between the Moon & Venus. It was a favorite telescope target and the belts were very clear as were the 4 Galilean Moons. So was Saturn further South in Scorpius.

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. The best view I had of several objects was through Larry’s telescope including M57, the Ring Nebula. Vittal set up his 8” Meade DOBS and saw a lot of Messier objects. Ves set up his 8” Meade LS telescope in the auxilary parking just past the 2nd gate.

Many regulars showed up including Butch, Roger Cotton, George & Peggy Robinson, Dave & Cheri and many others. Others that came were Eric Burgdorf, Jim, Terry Stephenson, Marcelo Riginato, Don Massey, Marty Needleman & Bonnie, William Deem & Grace Ziemba

There were a number of 1st time BSC star party people, including guest Sean Heidorn, Bruno Menezes, Suhasa Rao, David Mrozinski, Ofir Dvir and others. I think it was the first time for Julio Bernal and probably for Mike Epstein & Carol with 6 children from Utah.

Please forgive us if I missed anyone or we got your names spelled wrong.

We were not able to see the ISS pass as was too low, and neither HST pass was visible nor was the Iridium flare. No one was able to see M4 and M81 was very dim. At least M13 was bright as was M22. We forgot to look for Comet Lovejoy and Asteroid 2 Pallas. The Summer Triangle was well placed for viewing and double star Albireo looked nice as did the double-double up by Vega.

The gate was locked at midnight and the temperature had only dropped to 62 F. Everyone had a good time and the sky stayed clear all evening.

Steve & Bonnie