Año Nuevo star party

by Rich Neuschaefer

Last night (Sat. March 18th, '06) there was a star party at Año Nuevo State Reserve parking lot. It was a little north of Waddell Creek next to Hwy 1 (Cabrillo Hwy). The star party was (part of?) an appreciation night for volunteers and staff at the reserve, There were 6 scopes, Heather, Daniel, Dan, and I were the TAC/SJAA folks. Pat and another fellow (16" Orion Dob) were from the Santa Cruz club. I think Heather is also in the Santa Cruz club.

When I arrived a little after 6pm there were some high thin clouds and knots of high fog. By 7pm or 7:30pm the sky was better. The seeing was surprisingly good. Saturn was very nice. The Cassini Division was easy to see.

We had plenty of scopes for the number of visitors. I was using my 6.1" f/7 APO refractor. I showed Saturn, M42, NGC 2903? (the semi edge on galaxy near the nose of Leo), M81 and M82, M1, M45, and M48. Dan was taking folks on a tour of double stars, Daniel and Heather were showing a number of objects.

The sky were quite clear. Some small clouds floating by. There was a light dome to the southeast, likely caused by Santa Cruz. Other than that it was relatively dark. It was an interesting night. The visitors and staff were very nice and seemed to be having a good time. We left around 10pm.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Mar 19, 2006 13:11:29 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.3 Mar 19, 2006 13:56:21 PT

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