Public Outreach Events for November
The last Silver Sands event for the year was on November 1, 2019. It was a clear night!!! For the first time in a long time we were able to show the 10-20 people that showed up the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and other nice deep sky objects. There was a very enthusiastic young girl who showed up with her dad and her scope. Cheryl helped show them how to use the scope and she was able to find a few objects. She was very happy with her experience and most likely will be back again. She was one of the Girl Scouts from our Milford Girl Scout event that was held last October. We need more young people learning astronomy.
The last Young’s Park public viewing was on November 2, 2019. The day was beautiful. But, as it has happened many times before, the clouds started rolling in as darkness fell. We heard from many people that when they left home there was a clear sky. When they arrived at Young’s Park it was cloudy. We all had a fun time jumping from sucker hole to sucker hole to catch the moon, Saturn, Jupiter and assorted stars that popped out. Then, after many of the dozen or so people left, the sky started to clear up. We were able to show the late arrivers some deep sky objects before the skies started to cloud up again and our customers departed.
The night of Saturday, November 9 was quite cold and blustery at the Long Wharf Nature Preserve for the astronomy night sponsored by the New Haven Land Trust. We had quite a few scopes set up, but at first we wondered if anyone would come to look through them on this chilly night. They did! We had perhaps 85 people come by, and some times there were fairly long lines at a few of the scopes. A nice gibbous Moon provided a wonderful sight through the scopes, and those who came early got a quick glimpse of Saturn and its rings before it set in the west. Like most of our events this fall, the skies were partly clear and partly cloudy, but we did get to show visitors the Pleiades and a few other deep-sky targets.
On Saturday, November 16, we held a good public observing event sponsored by the Colchester Land Trust at Cold Springs Farm. It was a cold night. It was a very clear cold night. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Colchester is a long drive so we only had 3 scopes set up. Cheryl and I stayed on the larger items while Greg wowed everyone with great view in the 18”. There were well over 100 people by the time the night was through. The people came in waves but there were still lines of over 20 deep at some points during the night. I am really surprised that so many people came out with temperatures in the low 30s. There weren’t any planets up but there we were able to show the many deep sky objects that are usually hidden from view. The moon came up late and really did look like an orange cheese wheel. By the end our feet and hands were frozen. We can chalk this up as another successful event for 2019.
Our final observing event of 2019 was held at the Meigs Point Nature Center at Hammonasset on Friday, November 22. All the forecasts predicted clear skies, but for most of the evening clouds covered more than half the sky. Still, we managed to show visitors Saturn low in the west, Uranus, and a variety of deep-sky targets, including the Pleiades, the Double Cluster in Perseus, the ET Cluster, and the Andromeda Galaxy. We had 6 or 7 scopes set up plus a pair of giant binoculars, and about 40 people attended during the course of the evening. Even with the limited clear skies, those who came seemed pleased with what they could see.