Last night at Houge

by Jamie Dillon


Rich posted

I was out last night a the SJAA Houge In Town star party. The Moon was interesting as always, although it was past the position I find even more interesting. I looked at M22, M13, M31, M32, the Double Cluster and some other nice groupings of stars last night at Houge. The sky was bright but at lest some of the brighter DSOs could be seen.

No kidding, we had a fun night. Mark Wagner did a good class, kept people interested for 2 and a half hours, including some obvious newcomers to the hobby. From a teacher's point of view, the level of the discussion was very well set. Folks like Neuschafer and JVN added their expertise and enthusiasm. Then Jerry, Jim and Jamie all setup for some low-key sidewalk astro.

Given a 3.0 mag sky with 3/5 seeing, a bright Moon four days from full, Houge showed off why people go there. My first time stargazing there. Jupiter and Saturn didn't hurt matters.

Good way to spend an evening.