Our first periodic sky view at the state park was lightly attended, but those that did show up left with very favorable comments. Three club members brought scopes and although Tom’s failed hard, we had enough to keep the viewers occupied. We started off with Saturn. It is now low on the western horizon at dusk and the sea level atmosphere was very apparent, but Saturn is always a crowd favorite. During the brief moments of good seeing, it still inspired vocal reaction.
While waiting for their turn at the eyepiece the observers listened to the narrator as he described several of the different visible constellations and asterisms along with some historical trivia relating to the star patterns.
The state parks sky was dark and clear enough that the Milky Way was visible. The Tea Pot asterism in Sagittarius along with it’s ‘steam’ was dead south of us and quite apparent. The southern horizon at the park is low enough to see the entire tail and stinger of Scorpius.
We had a great time and we would like to thank the staff of Topsail Hill Preserve State Park for the opportunity to share our passion of the night sky with their guests. I was remiss in not writing down their names but we would also like to thank the two members of the press representing The Walton Sun for covering our first event.