Ideal conditions greeted the 8 observers who came out to Binbrook last night. After turning away some May 2-4 campers, we set up in the parking lot by the boat launch and used the dwindling daylight to check out everyone’s equipment.

Ron Kitchen had recently finished building his 12″ truss-dob and treated me to excellent views of M3 and M13. New members Gary and Cathy Krevenky didn’t take long to assemble their SCT but needed a little help with alignment stars.

Steve Germann was trying out one of Mike Spicer’s loaner scopes, and guest Dean Inglis brought an 8″ Meade LX90. Rounding out the optics were Don Pullen’s 7″ Maksutov, Gail’s Starblast, and my 6″ dobsonian which provided the first views of the night when I spotted Mercury sitting in the haze above Hamilton airport.

It would be a good night for planets as we would also turn our glass to Venus, Saturn, and eventually Jupiter. We caught Io just before it transited the planet and, apparently, Mike Spicer caught it just after it was done. Other targets such as galaxies M65/66, M63, M94, planetaries NGC 6543 & 6210, and globular clusters M92 and NGC 6229 were found and enjoyed.

Just before midnight, Dean reported his scope had dewed up and we decided that it was as good a time as any to call it a night. Several satellites had been spotted and a coyote chorus had intermittently serenaded us. The temperature remained comfortable, the seeing and transparency had been in the upper range of good, and there were no bugs – that’s about as good as it gets at Binbrook and I’m glad we could take advantage.

Oh yeah, we also discovered a brand new, and very civilized, porta-john located by the pavilion at viewing area “B”. Could you ask anything more of a great observing site 🙂

From Dean Inglis;

Hi Glenn,

Many thanks for inviting me to the HAA dark site: well worth the drive, which incidently is 35 min from home contrary to my reported underestimate! I greatly appreciated your hospitality as Chair of the HAA and as a fellow observer.
Having a GOTO is fun and quick, but I was really quite amazed at your detailed charts and pointing out that planetary neb to me with your scope! Last night held several firsts for me: Mercury,Cassini’s division, the Leo triplet +++

Best regards,
Dean