For Topsail Hill State Park, we had a larger than average turn out of guest observers. Starting with solar observing and continuing on into the evening we had a steady flow of people. The Sun was sporting several sunspots along with a couple of small prominences. Tom had set up his spectroscope to provide an alternate view of the Sun.
 Tom shows how to use the library scope while Bill gets a picture. |
 Dennis explains to guests and a park ranger the uptick in solar activity. |
As the sky darkened, the Moon became the next target of opportunity.
 The Moon is almost directly overhead. |
 Woah, I can see craters. |
 Watching as the Trapezium gets brighter than the sky. |
 What am I looking at? |
The Pleiades and the Orion nebula were still high enough to clear the tree line but with the Moon being 47% lit, most of the dimmer objects were washed out. So, stellar targets such as Sirius’ M 41 and Ursa Major’s Alcor and Mizar were next on the list of objects.
Participating members were:
Bill Coffeen
Dave Halupowski & Kennedy Odom
Tom Haugh
Dennis & Marietta Hausch
We would like to thank Marietta Hausch and Bill Coffeen for the Topsail photos.