NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

The last Henderson Beach Sky View of 2013 started, as usual, with setting up telescopes 3 hours prior to sunset.  Dean Covey, Dennis Hausch and Tom Haugh provided safe views of the sun to the sparse guest observers.  Solar activity was on the low side with only a couple of small sunspot groups visible.  H-alpha scopes showed only a few limb prominences.

Once the sun set and the sky darkened, the solar scopes and filters were replaced for night time viewing.  As the crowd of guests assembled, Tom handed out sky charts and briefed their usage as well as sky view etiquette and some safety rules.  Ultimately, Dean, Dennis and Tom were joined by Frank Atchison, Ken Leone  and Dave Halupowski as each added their scope to the group.

Since October 12th was 2013’s International Observe the Moon Night (IOMN), and the crescent Moon was high overhead, it was the first target of opportunity.  It was quickly joined by a similarly crescent Venus in the western sky.

Guest observers lined up to view Epsilon Lyrae, the Great Andromeda Galaxy, the Ring Nebula and M-13 in Hercules as well as many other celestial objects.  Dave had a video camera attached to his scope and hosted a crowd of guests watching the objects that he was viewing.

The park rangers reported an attendance exceeding 100 people.

We would like to thank the Henderson Beach State Park rangers and volunteers that make our events here so successful.  We also look forward to next year and continuing our series of public sky views.