The first 2017 public star gaze at Henderson Beach State Park featured one of the better skies we have experienced there. The previous day’s weather left the skies clean and a little more stable, promising a darker sky than usual.
Joining us was Boy Scout Ryan Wethington. He used the star gaze to complete the last requirement toward his Astronomy merit badge. He manned the scope used to train staff members at the facilities participating in our library telescope program.
 Boy Scout Ryan Wethington sights in the library teaching telescope. |
 A thin crescent Moon shows up fine in the library scope. |
As usual, we started off with solar telescopes to view the Sun but with the Sun heading toward minimum in its 11 year cycle, the lack of activity results in a rather mundane view. We had our full complement of solar equipment set up but the Sun insisted on displaying little activity. Little activity or not, several of our guests got their very first telescopic views of the Sun.
 Frank Atchison shows one of our guest observers the star closest to the Earth; the Sun. |
 The solar viewing session starts to wrap up as the Sun gets very low in the sky. |
As the Sun set we transitioned to nighttime equipment with one of the first objects visible being a thin crescent Moon. As the crowd gathered we handed out star charts and explained how to use them as well as a quick explanation how the star gaze would proceed. As the sky continued to darken Mars came into view along with a crescent Mercury very low on the western horizon.
 Tom makes sure everyone gets an April sky map and knows how to use it. |
 One of our guest observers takes a look through Curt’s big refractor. |
The Orion nebula was still high enough in the sky to view along with M-41,next door in Canis Major. Directly overhead M-44, the beehive cluster, completely filled our lowest power eyepieces. Eventually, Jupiter rose in the east with its attendant moons and was high enough to clear the atmospheric muck on the horizon well before the time we started wrapping up.
Thanks go to all the club volunteers who supported the first Henderson Beach star gaze of the year with additional thanks to Marietta Hausch and Dave Halupowski for their fine event photography:
- Frank Atchison
- James Dubben
- Curt Goff
- George & Renee Gollehon
- Dave Halupowski & Kennedy Odom
- Tom Haugh
- Dennis & Marietta Hausch
- Dick Hoey
- Ken Sharp