Date Time: March 26, 2018 2030-2200 hrs
Weather: Slight breeze, no clouds, -3C with windchill of -6C. Seemed much cooler.
Attendance: Carla, Chris, Ed, Shawn, David McCashion, and five other visitors.
Equipment: Chris's 10" Dobsonian, and my Canon Rebel with 75-30 0mm lens on tripod.
Objective: To observe with friends.
Report:
- Surprisingly, it was still light out after 2000 hrs. Days are getting longer.
- Chris was set up and viewing the Moon with five passerby's, when we arrived. Chris does public outreach down at this beach on a regular basis and also streams live views, on his Facebook page Astronomy by the Bay, of the Moon and planets through his scopes, with his cellphone camera.
- Moon was very bright in the eyepiece, with Copernicus Crater standing out prominently near the terminator. Many other craters stood out alarmingly and one huge mountain range, that seemed to pop out in 3D, on the terminator. Absolutely fascinating!
- Venus was lowering in the West, as we arrived. When it got close to the horizon, Ed noted that it would make a nice picture. Chris noted that it will be high in the evening sky all summer.
- Ed noted that Orion is moving to the west, in the evening sky. This means that soon Orion will move behind the Sun in our sky, and thus be out of sight from Earth, till next fall. In other words, it's a sign that summer is nearing.
- Ed and I were discussing that it's now the time of year to do a Messier Marathon, where the observer spends all night searching for and observing all 110 Messier objects. Late March, early April is the only time its possible to do this. When the Moon gets closer to New, the sky will be darker and more suited to do this.
- We observed a bright satellite pass down the length of the Big Dippers Handle. It stayed visible for a long time, and was travelling from South to North.
- No shooting stars were seen.
