The Central Texas Astronomical Society Star Party

[rabbithutch]

CTAS held a public star party Saturday night, June 25. Four or five club members were on hand with some very nice club equipment and several of us with less spectacular gear. The club leader spoke about the sky and did really well challenging the youngsters who were in attendance (ages about 6 to 16) and the adults who brought them. I got to see Saturn through my own 8" dob. This was the first time I've ever seen the rings. I then looked at the planet through the club Schmidt Cassegrain. The view was much more stable on that mount than it was on my wind-blown dob. Skies were clear and the seeing very good for this time of year despite a strong southerly breeze and temperatures in the 80's Fahrenheit.

Met the president of the club, a brilliant electronics engineer, and chatted with him about astronomy and the stars and assorted other topics. I was fascinated as he told me how many hours he has spent on the MacDonald Observatory 82" scope and even spent time on the scope at Mauna Kea. He has seen the Gegenshein at both observatories. I was enthralled to learn so much from such a nice guy who is so extremely brilliant and who has shared his knowledge and enthusiasm so freely and helpfully.

I was so blown away at all I saw that I didn't take notes. I saw the dumbbell (or Apple Core) nebula, the eagle nebula, and so many stars and objects that I can't catalog them all here. I have already placed my portable digital recorder in my astro knapsack for the next time.

I have pics on my iPhone of the site we viewed from. It was not the best wrt light pollution, but for convenience and access it will be hard to beat.

More later. Just had to let you know how excited an old man can get with this hobby!

Cheers!

[RogerTheDodger]

Sounds like you had a great night

[grcameron]

Hi. What kind of digital recorder are you using? I'm using a mini-DV camcorder with av-in. I'd like a hard drive recorder or a memory card recorder.

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Glenn