Black Star Canyon Star Party Recap – Saturday October 3rd, 2015
 
This past Saturday the sky was clear and warm throughout Orange County so when we opened the gate about 6 pm, we were surprised to see there were only 7 cars waiting at the gate. By the end of the night, we had counted a total of 21 cars in the parking area and about 36 people.

Saturn was in Scorpius so was well positioned for viewing and a favorite early target. We did not get to see the Hubble Space Telescope pass low in the SW as the sky was just too bright at 6:51 pm. But everyone did get to see the International Space Station make it’s 8:20 pass.

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 again. The best view I had of several objects was through Larry’s telescope including M57 , M8 (the Lagoon Nebula), Neptune and Uranus.

Rob was first in the auxiliary parking just past the 2nd gate and during the evening he showed stunning images of many objects including Saturn, Albireo & the Double Cluster. Ves Snelson set up his Meade 8” LS next to Rob and told me he had a great night viewing many objects.

The Summer Triangle was well placed for viewing. Double star Albireo looked nice as did the Ring Nebula (M57) up by Vega. We had nice views of Saturn & the Andromeda Galaxy through our 6” Meade LightSwitch. Bonnie liked M31 through binoculars and shared that view with several people.

Setting up across from us were Peggy & George once again but they would not have come if the Mt. Wilson 60-Inch telescope session had not been cancelled. Also set up on that side was Sydney (with her new scope), her Dad, Tracy & Dave. Marcelo Reginato had fun shooting pictures and Greg set up his Meade ETX-80 and was the last to shut down.

Many others showed up including Val and I think Butch showed up later, Marcelo Reginato, Ilkunur Aydin, Tarik & friend Jody. Also attending were Pat & George Gutman, Joyce Wangerin, Eric Burgdorf, John Glassco, Dave Murphy & his guest Jerry, Kevin, Peter Mya and Brent Freeze with his young daughter.

There were a number of 1st time BSC star party people, including Barbara & Martin, Willis Baker, Kelee Eiselein, Luke Mordarski, Karen & Ed Johnston and Carolina Garza & her Dad Frank.

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.

Unfortunately the sky clouded over pretty bad about 9 pm so most everyone shut down and went home. The clouds first covered the SW sky covering all the nice objects in Sagittarius. Some of the sky stayed clear, mostly straight up leaving objects in the Summer Triangle visible. But by 10 pm most of the sky was cloudy.

The gate was locked just at 10:30 and the temperature was still a warm 60 F. The only clear sky at that time was in Cassiopeia.

Steve & Bonnie