[Chaos-l] Staunton River Observing

[Jayme Hanzak]

Even though the temperature was balmy. Cool compared to the RDU area, 90 degrees, 

Mike Gallagher and Chris Schelin join me at Staunton River park. We had a great turn out of 40 to 50 campers who 

were not disappointed of their view of Saturn. Many of the campers left shortly after, but we had some die hards that 

stayed with for quite a while. 

  

There was a group of young ladies (12) who were at the park with a youth conservation group, that were actually quite 

knowledge able of the constellations and asked where they were.  We also had a father and daughter team that stayed with us. Dad 

is an amateur who was full of questions and learned how to find M57 and M13. He had looked for these before with 

some frustration and now he knows how to find them.  

  

We also showed the group M8 (Lagoon) M20(Trifid) nebulae. M51, M4, the Veil Nebula and Albereo of course. I got 

a look at globular NGC6496 in Corona Ausralis a constellation I can't see at home. It looked like a ghost of the star next to it. 

  

The night started off balmy as I said and some clouds showed up at around 10pm. They cleared out around 11 and the Milky Way  

was visible from below Sagittarius through Cassiopeia. The haze was heavy, my green laser looked like a light saber. South Boston 

put up a light dome brighter than it was on July 3rd. Clarksville was noticeable but not bad. All in all a good night to be out. 

  

The mosquitoes were a bother around the ears, but bathing in OFF, I didn't lose any blood. actually, the bug factor was a little less 

last night compared to the last trip. 

  

Our next trip up to Stuanton is next Friday, August 5th. Public Observing is from 9pm - 11pm. CHAOS is welcome to stay as long 

as we would like. 

  

We're also working on an observing session for the club in September. Thursday the 22nd to Sunday the 25th. You don't have to be there the 

entire time, you can show up any time during these dates or just spend one evening. It is the parks thank you to the club for our assistance 

over the summer. I hope many of our members can make it. 

  

Clear skies! 

  

  Jayme Hanzak 
CHAOS President 

CHAOS 
P.O. Box 3001 
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0842 
http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos/ 
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