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.