According to the registration desk, about 100 visitors came to the Austin Astronomical Society public star party at Pedernales Falls State Park last night (8 July). The club works closely with Texas Parks and Wildlife there and also at Inks Lake State Park. Half a dozen of us have been vetted with background checks to be volunteer docents. Pedernales extends their closing time from 10:00 PM to 11:30 PM for these events and beyond that we can take the time we need to pack up and close up. The club maintains a cargo container converted into a lecture room and storage for our largest telescopes.
Club members bring a wide range of instruments to these events. This time there was a plethora of large Dobsonian reflectors, with apertures of 18, 22, and 24 inches. I brought a 130mm (5-inch) tabletop dob mounted on a altitude-azimuth mount. The other AWB 130 on the field came with two new stargazers and this was the "first light" for their telescope. They had hoped to view Messier 101, Messier 81 and 82 galaxies in and around Ursa Major but the fish were not biting. You really need to understand what you are looking at and looking for. A couple of star parties back, another stargazer and I were laughing about the times we went back and forth looking for the thing we kept passing up. Nonetheless, I told our new friends about the Astronomical League: membership in the AL comes with your membership in Austin Astro and the AL offers mentored, self-paced observing programs with certificates and pins. One of the AL programs is pursuing double stars and I helped Manfred and Melissa find Albireo, Zubenelgenubi, Mu Scorpii, and Alcor-Mizar. "See, you have four down and 46 to go."
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| Terry Phillips explains how a reflector telescope works. Terry has served as vice president, secretary, and president. |
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| Tracy and David Urban brought their 6-inch Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. |
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| Abhir Joshi and his large Dobsonian. |
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| The key to Jim Gardner's astrophotography rig is the very nice Takahashi refractor (white at left). |
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| Manfred Trent with his 130-mm tabletop Newtonian from Astronomers Without Borders. He built a light shroud. His wife, Melissa, is encouraging him to add an alt-az mount. |
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| Collimating the other AWB 130 on the field last night. (Explore Scientific Twilight-1mount.) Retail from Astronomers Without Borders is $249. Celestron donates some of the wholesale price to support the not-for-profit mission of AWB. |
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| Austin Astro stalwart Ron Carman brought a telescope that he did not make. A brief biography ran in Sidereal Times for April 2016. |
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| Jamie Canfield worked the registration desk along with Joyce Lynch. Jamie is the VP this year. She previously served as secretary. Joyce has been the editor of Sidereal Times and the club president. Before Covid, when she was the Outreach chair we did events at schools and libraries as often as three times a week. |
PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS
Physics for Astronomers: The Works of Steven Weinberg
Kyle Astronomy Club International Observe the Moon Night
