The last Eden Gardens State Park sky view of 2016 was a great event. Frank Atchison, Dean Covey, Tom Haugh and Dennis Hausch all set up scopes in front of the grand old Wesley house.
 Built in 1897 the Wesley house is our most elegant star gaze venue. |
 Dennis adds a light shroud to his 12.5″ Dob. |
We were lucky enough to show our early guests Saturn in the gathering dusk just before it set behind the high tree lined horizon. Venus quickly followed and when it also set, Mars became the obvious target of opportunity. Throughout the evening, other deep sky sites were shown: Epsilon Lyrae, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Ring Nebula to name a few. The skies are dark enough that the Ring Nebula showed a hint of color when viewed through Dennis’ 12.5″ Dobsonian.
 Frank explains how to use the October sky map. |
 Dean aligns his Celestron. |
As the crowd started to thin, high hazy clouds started to interfere and ultimately brought an end to the nights activities.
As usual, Eden Gardens provides one of the darker skies we visit during our public star gaze calendar and we look forward to continuing the star gazes in 2017. Thanks go to our ‘official’ event photographer, Marietta Hausch, for the photos.