Last night 11 HAA members heeded the call and went out to McQueston Park for a cool evening of sidewalk astronomy. The array of telescopes looked impressive, as visitors had the opportunity to look through any of 2 Schmidt-Cassegrains, 1 Maksutov, 4 Newtonians and 2 refractors.

A slightly gibbous moon offered that “wow” factor with tremendous detail along the terminator and Jupiter received lots of attention due to a Europa shadow transit that was visible in even the smallest scope there (90mm). A meteorite was available for children to hold and examine, and of course there was lots of exchanges of information and sharing of eyepieces between the members. Jackie brought along a new 8″ Dobsonian that was carefully assembled and examined by many members, and deemed to give very fine views! Attempts to set up the Maksutov with a binoviewer and a pair of 13mm Naglers met with success, as there was just enough room to fit in these very large eyepieces. The effort was very worthwhile, as the view of the moon through this set-up was spectacular!

As the night progressed and the visitors dwindled, attention was turned to how well we could see some deep-sky objects from this very light polluted area of the city. Not surprisingly, filters helped tremendously, and merely blocking the light of the closest lamps improved the view a lot. Although I could see only 5 of the Pleiades with the unaided eye (and only that with effort) the younger eyes of Kevin were able to pick out many more, showing once again that your eyes are the best observing tool that you have.

A big thank you to all the members who turned out to share the night sky with the public and were rewarded with a fun evening that included some great views of the sky and some even better company.