This year the spring National Astronomy Day coincided with Walton County’s Earth Day celebration at Topsail Hill State Park. In 2011 we supported the Earth Day celebration with a night time star gaze. Last year we attempted a day time event but were clouded out. This year we planned both a daytime and nighttime event and were successful in both. The weather cooperated all day. The wind was a little blustery during set up, but there were no appreciable clouds.
A young guest observer views the sun spots.
The sun provided several sunspot groups with the largest being an S-shaped chain of small spots centrally located on the disk. Frank Atchison and Tom Haugh brought telescopes with white light filters. Chuck Lynch showed up early and provided valuable relief duty while waiting to use his tripod mounted binoculars for nighttime viewing.
Matt Spidell and Dennis Hausch brought Hydrogen Alpha tuned telescopes. The sun provided the specialized targets for these telescopes as well as several obvious prominences on the solar limb were visible. We were glad to have all those scopes as the constant flow of people kept us busy. We handed out our club flyer as well as the April edition of the Evening Sky Map.
We were honored by a visit by one of the Earth Day ambassadors. A local rescue group brought a large gopher tortoise that had been injured and nursed back to health. He seemed to know he was the guest of honor. He showed no fear of the human participants. He viewed our display for a few minutes then proceeded off to the other exhibits.
The Ambassador
Full speed ahead!
B-25J (44-30734) “Panchito”
The sun was not the only object visible during the daytime event. The Walton county event also coincided with the last reunion of the surviving members of the famed Doolittle Raiders. The top secret mission’s training was held at one of the outlying fields on nearby Eglin AFB and the base and surrounding communities have always been proud of their small contribution to the effort. Five restored WWII B-25 Mitchell bombers were brought in for the reunion. The planes were visible throughout the day flying up and down the coastline.
Ken checks his alignment.
Later in the afternoon, Ken Leone arrived to augment our night time arsenal with his 8″ SCT and Dennis swapped his Hα scope for a Dobsonian reflector. Down came the pop-up shade and the solar filters were removed as the emphasis became the night sky. As the sky darkened Jupiter was first to become visible.
With only a week between the Henderson Beach event and this one, the objects visible were all the same although the skies are slightly darker at Topsail Hill. The Great Orion Nebula, the Pleiades, M-41 (as well as other Messier objects) were all viewed and discussed. Ultimately, Saturn rose above the eastern tree line in time to cap off the day’s festivities.
The Walton County Earth Day event was a lot of fun, we talked to a lot of people, showed many people their first view of the sun and we look forward to participating again next year. We thank the “Friends of Topsail Hill Preserve State Park” for the invite and for a well run event. Thanks also go to Frank, again, for his pictures.