[LVAS] Red Rocks Mar 2010

[Fred Rayworth]

All,

 

Had a pretty decent time last night despite the sky closing in on us.

 

Was able to show some newbies and not so newbies Saturn, Mars, the Moon, and the Orion Nebula. Had a great time chatting with Bunny Nua, David (See? I remembered) Blanchette and El Presidente Rob Lambert.

 

I'm not sure how big the crowd was, but it was somewhere around 100 or so and they were enthusiastic. 

 

As for the sky, the Moon was a fat sliver and I noticed the shadows change in one particular crater as the night wore on. Don't ask me which one it was because I don't know. All I know as that it had a huge mountain in the middle.

 

Mars was mostly a red blob but at 220X, I did catch a bit of polar cap and some markings between blurs. I've seen it much better.

 

Saturn was, as David described it, a ball with a stick through it. Saw two moons, but was only sure of Titan.

 

As for the Orion Nebula, it started as just the Trapezium and a few stars in NGC-1976. David was the first to notice the fifth star in the Trapezium and once he pointed it out, I saw it every time. I'd forgotten which two stars to look between to see it. The nebula itself was invisible at first, then it became a fatter and fatter glow, until the last time I looked at it and I could see the "wings" of nebulosity stretching out.

 

Had a couple of people ask me things like distance and such, and I told them to ask the others because despite being at this 40+ years, I just don't pay attention to the math.

 

David had his solar scope set up and I was wowed by the solar prominences at 2, 7 and 8 o'clock. Plus there was this black streak near the 2 o'clock position as well as several other sunspot like blobs. Quite a treat.

 

Rob did the presentation on open clusters and had the crowd wowed when I dropped in for a listen.

 

He had the Orion Nebula up on the Mallincam and projected on a screen agains the wall. It was okay because there was no way to get dark adapted with sky conditions. He kept the crowd going with his camera.

 

Bunny had Rob's 10" Dob set up and after I helped her get the finder aligned, she was busy showing the night's objects. The times I looked over there, she had as big of a line as I did.

 

A reporter and a photographer from the Review Journal showed up and interviewed us and took photos. I also showed them each a few things.

 

A good night overall, especially when I almost went to Redstone where I would have wasted a bunch of gas. I had wanted to do this event but I didn't get he challenge for March and wanted to take a stab at it instead. Glad I opted to do my thing for Astronomy and Country!

 

Here are a few photos of the event.

 

Fred

 
 		 	   		  
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