Luckily, rain did not hamper the first moon walk on July 20, 1969. However, it did put a damper on Hurlburt Field Library’s celebration of the first moon walk on the 20th of July this year. So a re-schedule was in order and on the 3rd of August we tried again. Although rain once again threatened, the library was successful this time.
Club members Dean Covey, Dennis Hausch, Chuck Lynch, Tom Haugh, Ken Leone and Bob Schritter were on hand to support the library.
The usual suspects (minus one).
During setup the thunderheads were well north of the base and did not appear to be a problem as the sun was well clear of them. But, by the time the attendees started to arrive the sun was solidly hidden. Tom gave a quick briefing on the NWFAA members, their scopes and what should have been visible if the sky was clear. So while the solar viewing was on hold, the guest observers adjourned to the soda bottle rocket launch facility. Unfortunately, the rockets were not the only things that started falling from the sky. Covers were quickly placed on the scopes.
The rain did not last very long and by the time all the additional festivities were over, the clouds thinned, the covers came off and the sun was now in view. The guest observers then made the rounds and viewed the sun. Ken and Bob provided white light views, while Dean and Dennis brought H-alpha scopes. Tom debuted his L-200 spectroscope.
There were a couple of small sun-spots visible in white light and a couple of faint but large prominences were visible on the solar limb in Ha.
Thanks to our library POC Sabrina for the invitation and for the photographs.