The last Henderson Beach Sky View of the year was, as usual, a great success. NWFAA members turned out in force for the event with Frank Atchison, Dennis Hausch, Matt Spidell, Tom Haugh, Tony Russo, John E. and Chuck Lynch bringing equipment. As usual, sky maps were handed out with Tom going from group to group explaining how to orient them to the sky until it got too dark to see.
Without any bright planets or Moon visible, deep sky objects were the targets of choice for the evening. The gulf skies obliged with the darkest night we have had during our sky views out at the beach. Lyra objects Epsilon (the Double Double star) and the Ring Nebula were just past the zenith and obvious targets as Vega was the first star visible. Numerous other Messier objects as well as star clusters and Neptune were viewed. Jupiter just made it over the eastern horizon late in the evening but did not make it high enough to be clearly visible before the crowd eventually waned.
We would like to thank the staff and park rangers of Henderson Beach State Park for hosting the 2012 Star Views. We had a great time at each event and we look forward to next year.