NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

Although it was clear when the go/no go weather decision was made and it was mostly clear when we started setting up at Eden Gardens State Park it did not stay that way long. It did stay clear enough long enough for a couple of scopes to find Jupiter in full daylight. Several of the early guest observers where treated to the view although the sky was too bright to see any of the Galilean moons.
 

 
The clouds continued to gather and ultimately filled in obscuring Jupiter. But the clouds did little to deter the enthusiasm of the gathering crowd. The park ranger said she lost count of the guests at 180.

Club members Frank Atchison, Dean Covey, Tom Haugh, Dennis Hausch and Chuck Lynch all brought scopes and were joined by new club member Carol King. Two of our guests also brought telescopes. Each telescope had an eager group of people asking questions and examining the equipment. The question and answer period continued for quite a while until someone noticed the clouds had broken and Jupiter was once again in view.

At that time all the scopes were brought to bear on the planet and by now the skies were dark enough for all 4 of Jupiter’s large moons to be visible. Now each scope had a line of observers and the guest scopes had a club member helping find and view the largest planet. Although the skies never cleared enough to view any other targets Jupiter satisfied all our requirements for a great sky view. We must thank the staff of Eden Gardens State Park for the invite and we look forward to our next visit in October. We also thank Marietta Hausch for her photography.

Once again the Hurlburt Field Library hosted a star gaze for their patrons. They also advised local scout groups of the event and several scouts joined in the festivities.

Club members Dean Covey, Tom Haugh and Dennis Hausch started things off with their solar equipment. There was a small sunspot group visible in the white light filtered scopes, but the H-alpha view was fairly unimpressive with only the smallest hint of a solar prominence.

Dennis assists the scouts at Tom’s H-Alpha scope.

Frank awaits the darkening sky.

By then club member Frank Atchison arrived and added his 8″ Meade SCT to the collection of telescopes pointed at the sky.

As the Sun started setting, the darkening sky brought Jupiter into view. As the line started to form at Dennis’ Mak-Cass Tom interrupted the growing anticipation and started briefing the crowd on star gaze etiquette, telescope safety and how to use the star charts that we routinely hand out at our events. Since the library brought their 4.5″ Newtonian reflector to the event, he explained the library’s telescope lending policy. But the King of Planets could no longer be held off and night time viewing started in earnest.

Tom briefs the growing crowd.

Look! Jupiter!

The rest of the evening, many celestial objects were targeted. In addition to Jupiter, the Alcor/Mizar pair, the Beehive Cluster and many others were presented to the guest observers.

We want to thank the library for the invitation to join them and we also want to thank the base airmen who volunteered to assist the library. Their help was much appreciated.

Dave Halupowski and Dennis Hausch braved the mostly cloudy skies and setup solar telescopes at the Heritage Museum’s 40th annual “Saturday in the Park” celebration in Valparaiso. Dave set up his ancient and honored Unitron refractor and provided a projection view of the Sun. Dennis set up his white light filtered Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and his Coronado Hydrogen-Alpha scope. Later in the afternoon club member Professor Tony Russo from NWFSC joined the pair and added his expertise to the group.

A local Constable examines Dennis’ equipment.

Dave waiting for the clouds to clear.

When the clouds intervened they answered lots of Astronomy questions and handed out the club’s schedule of public star gazes. Photos courtesy of Dave Halupowski and Marietta Hausch