With the weather forecast calling for increasing clouds, with rain beginning after midnight, an optimistic group of approximately 40 stargazers came out to the Saturday public night of June 13, 2015.
The winds were non existent, and the skies generally parted for most of the fairly humid evening. Such sultry conditions can be excellent for observing planets, and this night was no exception.
Neil gave his classroom presentation twice during the evening. It was titled “Decoding Starlight”.
Shannon showed visitors the crescent Venus at very high power in the 25.4 main refractor.
Outside on the deck, Emily, when not working inside the dome, was using the 25.4 cm Dobsonian, pointing at Venus and later Saturn.
Tricia and Mark used the 20 cm Meade to look at the planets.
Later in the evening, as Saturn rose, there were unprecedented views in all telescopes, including views of the atmospheric bands and the Cassini division.
Amateur Heather also had her 90mm Celestron NexStar on the observing deck, and showed visitors both Jupiter and Saturn.
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