Our annual trip up north to Spanish Trails Scout Reservation in support of the 2018 Tiger Growl was, once again, great. Scout attendance was a little down from past years but there were plenty of additional brothers, sisters, Moms and Dads to keep us busy.
We also had plenty of support from club members:
- Frank Atchison
- James Dubben
- Chris and Danny Ellis
- George and Renee Gollehon
- Tom Haugh
James, of course, brought the clubs 16″ Dobsonian. New members Chris and Danny brought their scope which turned into an OJT session as they got more observing experience with a line of scouts at the ready. Frank mounted his DSLR to his Williams refractor and our guests observed via his preview screen. Tom started off the evening viewing the Trapezium in twilight. No nebula was visible yet since the sky was too bright, but the 4 main stars were easily visible.
As the sky darkened, more of our standard fare came into view:
- Sirius
- M41
- M42 (the rest of it)
- M45
- M1
- M81
- M35
Later, the Moon only one day past full, cleared the treeline and washed out the deep sky objects, but by then most of the scouts had adjourned to their camp sites and we wrapped up a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
We would like to thank the scout leaders for inviting us again and sharing their dark skies with us.