NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

The NWFAA was once again invited by the Northwood Elementary School 3rd grade to setup telescopes and talk about the Sun. Dave Halupowski, Dennis Hausch and Tom Haugh were able to make the trek way up north to Crestview.

	Dave brought his ancient and honored Unitron refractor to demonstrate the classic method of Solar projection. Sunspots were plainly visible on the projection screen.
Dennis’ Coronado provided a Hydrogen Alpha view showing a nice prominence starting off the morning.
	Tom’s filtered 8″ Meade rounded out the telescope array with a white light view.

 
The students attended the NWFAA solar presentation, then afterwards, came out the to telescope lineup class by class to view the Sun in a perfectly clear sky. We want to thank the Northwood Elementary School staff and students for the invite and warm welcome. We look forward to next years solar event.

Once again, the NWFAA supported Walton Outdoor’s Explore the Outdoors Festival. This year we returned to Live Oak Landing. The trees here limit our location to the same place every year. Luckily, it puts us right on the walking path from parking to all the other outdoor exhibits. This means we get a constant flow of guest observers throughout the event and two chances to offer them a look through our equipment.

Young Miss Kennedy mans our booth early in the event.

In white light the Sun was very quiet. There were no appreciable sunspots visible and after a couple of hours of explaining what a sunspot would look like (if there was one) Dennis decided to change tactics. His alignment was good enough that he was easily able to find Venus in the daytime sky and for the rest of the event, that was the target in the Mak. The planet was deep in a crescent phase and provided a very ‘teachable’ moment to the public observers.

By now, Dennis targets the daytime crescent Venus.

Guest observers view the Sun in Hydrogen-Alpha light.

We handed out plenty of club flyers and sky charts and had a great time showing the daytime objects to the crowd. The Explore the Outdoors Festival is one that we all enjoy supporting and we have already been invited back to next years event on Oct 15, 2016. We will be there.

Threatening weather did little to thwart the August Henderson Beach State Park sky view. We had to delay setting up the solar telescopes for a short time due to a light mist, but once it stopped we pressed on. To the West was a large thunderhead that, although threatening, never came toward the park and eventually dissipated.

Solar observing started with Dean Covey, Dennis Hausch and Tom Haugh. The weather kept all but a couple of solar observers from stopping by. As the Sun set the day shift was joined by Frank Atchison, Robert Sutphen, Dave Halupowski, Chuck Lynch and Ken Leone all bringing optical equipment to bear. Sky charts were handed out and instruction on how to use them was provided to the growing crowd. Jupiter started the night time show as it was viewed setting right after the Sun. Saturn, as usual, was the ‘star’ of the evening, although there were plenty of other bright objects in view. The great Hercules cluster, the Ring Nebula (M 57) and the famous multiple star system Epsilon Lyrae to name just a few.

The weather kept the count of guest observers lower than normal; we estimated about 70. Just before we started to disassemble the equipment a couple of the park rangers stopped by in order to take a look for themselves. We took the opportunity to thank them, once again, for hosting our events.

The July edition of the Topsail Hill State Park Sky View was the best attended regular event the club has had at that location as we had more than 30 guest observers. Several of our guests were students from Professor Russo’s astronomy class fulfilling class requirements.

Tom Haugh was the first club member to arrive, however, one of the NWFSC students was the first on site and got the first views through Tom’s Hydrogen Alpha telescope. Several beach goers were also able to view the Sun through the solar telescope before the Sun set behind an ominous thunderhead on the western horizon. Meanwhile Chuck Lynch arrived and setup his tripod mounted binoculars and his dobsonian mounted Newtonian telescope. Dennis Hausch finally made it through the summer traffic and set up his Maksutov. Before it got totally dark, we handed out sky charts to the crowd and briefed them on their use.

The crescent Venus had not yet set behind the western clouds while Jupiter was intermittently visible through breaks in those same clouds. Eventually they set for good but by that time Saturn was visible and as usual, garnered all the attention. At that time, prospective member Dylan Lane attached his Canon T5i DSLR to Tom’s 8″ Meade and took a quick shot of Saturn.

Deep sky objects were also presented to the remaining guests. The globular cluster in Hercules (M 13) and the Ring Nebula (M 57) in Lyra were visible. The multiple star system Epsilon Lyra was viewed as well as the chromatic Alberio.

The crowd had dissipated by 10:00 PM and we wrapped up and headed home. Luckily, the traffic was not a problem by then.

Henderson Beach State Park once again welcomed the NWFAA by hosting our June public star gaze. Frank Atchison, Dean Covey and Tom Haugh, all recently recovered from the Wednesday afternoon solar star gaze at Northwest Florida State College, arrived early enough to set up their solar equipment and allow safe viewing of the Sun. While they were aligning their equipment they were joined by club member Chuck Lynch.

Once again, it was a hot afternoon which meant any guest observer who showed up, really wanted to view the Sun. But, as usual, there were a few and they were treated to both white light and H-alpha views. The same sunspot groups were visible that we saw Wednesday. Unfortunately, the H-alpha view showed only very minor prominence activity. As an alternative, Frank’s telescope alignment was good enough to find Venus in the daytime sky as well as the 3 day old Moon.

As the crowd grew, we passed out June sky charts and held several quick group sessions on how to use them. As was expected, Venus and the Moon led off the evening objects with Jupiter quickly following. The three of them formed a very pretty grouping in the Western sky. Some twilight clouds tried to horn in on the action and only led to brief delays at the telescope lines. Showing up fashionably late, Saturn rose out of the eastern haze and was added to the list of objects viewed. Finally, the great cluster in Hercules (M 13) was spotted. The one downside to the evening was a young guest observer left disappointed as the local light pollution prevented viewing ‘a galaxy’. But, he said he would try again at the August event.

The guest observers were gone by about 10:00 PM. As we loaded up the equipment, park rangers stopped by and commented on the crowd’s size and enthusiasm. We would, once again, like to thank the Henderson Beach State Park staff for hosting our event and look forward to the August 14th event. Hopefully, it will be a little cooler and the skies much more galaxy friendly.