Public Observing Events
By Donna Pursley
Stargazing at the Seymour Public Library on Friday October 11
I haven’t spent much time in Seymour. There is no easy way to get there from my home. After all the New Haven Friday traffic, the rest of the drive to Seymour was easy.
There was a nice place to set up in the parking lot. The library staff was able to turn off the outside lights but the moon was very bright. ASNH had plenty of scopes, maybe 10. We were able to see some other sights besides the Moon but it wasn’t the best night. No clouds, just not good seeing. Maybe it was the light pollution from nearby towns. The people were very nice and we had a really good mix of ages, from grandparents to young children. All were very interested. They had many questions about the northern lights from last night. We tried but we weren’t seeing them again tonight. The crowd thinned out early and we left about 9:30. It was a nice night. It feels good to have polite, interested attendees.
Silver Sands Park, Milford, Friday October 25
It was a beautiful day. The night started off slow before 7. People slowly and consistently started filtering in as it was getting dark. I think there were about 10 scopes set up and probably more than 150 people. But, as in the past, as it became dark the clouds starting coming in. We were able to see a few things (including Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, the Hercules cluster, Albireo) before we were mostly clouded out. Most of the telescopes were on Saturn, which seemed to stay in one of the few holes. Nobody complained. The people that came out were all very pleasant and polite. They were happy to see Saturn and understood about the clouds. We were able to pack up a little early and saw Jupiter rising in the East as we left.
Young’s Park, Branford, Saturday October 26
Now at Young’s Park, the sky was very clear. Greg Barker was able to stay on the comet for long enough for most everyone that came out was able to see it. We had about 10 scopes tonight also but we were able to move around the sky and show the people all sorts of different things. There weren’t as many people, but still a good-sized crowd at maybe 50 or so. The smaller crowd meant that there weren’t long lines and we could move the scopes around to many different things. Again, not a late night, but a successful weekend.
Hammonasset Family Astronomy Night, Friday November 1
It was a warm day and a clear night. We don’t get many clear nights for the Hammonasset stargazing so this was a bonus. Since it was getting dark early, many of us set up before official start time of 7pm. There were three astronomy groups here which added up to 22 scopes! Scopes of all different kinds. There was a large crowd, about 200 or so, but the lines moved and we were all able to move our scopes around to all sorts of different objects. The people seemed very enthusiastic and pleased to see everything that we showed them. The event winded down and we started packing up around 9pm. Another successful event.