Our last pubic star gaze of 2019 started with solar viewing and more than the normal complement of solar observers. A home school group had gotten the word that we started with viewing the Sun and had passed the word around, so we had a good crowd viewing the featureless Sun.
The NWFAA turned out lots of members and lots of scopes for both solar and nighttime observing:
- Dean Covey
- Chris Foley
- Walter Dunn
- Tom Haugh
- Marietta & Dennis Hausch
- Scott Morgan
In addition to the Sun, we were also able to see Venus well before sunset.
 Dennis shows off the Sun. |
 Walter’s guest observes Venus. |
 Dean aligns his scope to a new target. |
 Scott provides one last look at the Sun before the shadows close in. |
As the Sun dropped below the horizon, we swapped out solar instruments for nighttime equipment.
After dark targets included:
- Jupiter
- Venus
- Mercury
- Saturn
- Neptune
- M 2
- M 15
The chilly weather kept the after dark crowd down to about 40-50 guest observers. As the night progressed some very high haze limited our target selection to the brighter objects.
We need to thanks, once again, Marietta Hausch for the event photos.
We also need to thank the rangers and staff at all the state parks we hold star gazes in for allowing us the opportunity to share our passion for the night sky. We look forward to next year’s star gazes at the parks. In 2019 we had to deal with too much inclimate weather. Let’s hope next year is better.