Although the weather threatened to interfere with the Sky View earlier in the day, it was clear by the time we started setting up at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. While we setup the telescopes we received the requisite visit by the park rangers and entertained the first astronomical questions of the night.
Just after we were all setup, the Hubble Space Telescope was scheduled to make a west to east pass. While we were scanning the skies a very bright but unidentified satellite made a quick north to south pass. A couple of minutes later a slightly dimmer Hubble appeared.
It was fairly dark when the first of the guest observers started to arrive. But, from then on, a steady relay of visitors arrived and made the rounds to each telescope. With four telescopes up an running, we kept everyone busy.
Frank started off with the double cluster in Perseus viewed through his 8″ Meade. We cycled through several of the Messier objects, the comet Garradd, and the planet Uranus. When the atmosphere calmed, it was just possible to see the disk. It was not an impressive sight, but several observers can now check off that block. Dennis turned his venerable 8″ Dobsonian on Jupiter and was a big hit with several of our younger observers. Toward the end of the evening, the Pleiades climbed out of the muck, and made a grand sight. Justin brought his refractor and provided an alternative view to all the mirrors.
This was our best attended Topsail monthly event, the skies remained clear and a good time was enjoyed by all. It was also the last of 2011. We look forward to 2012 and resuming our monthly Topsail Hill Sky Views.