Diane and I had a great time at Garner this weekend. Diane was especially popular with the crowds pointing out two different double stars. I think she got hoarse telling folks about the telescopic doubles. She was impressed at the reception she got from women who lined up to see the sky. Mothers with kids in their arms were especially appreciative of our club's efforts.
I had fun showing folks the moon in my binocular chair. I discovered that I could help them see the moon by having them sit down with their head back on the back of the chair and then bring the binocular down to their face so the white spots of light lined up with their eyes fairly well. This was the first time that I had successfully shown folks something with the chair.
The two of us closed up shop for the crowd about 1130 PM and I spent a while with Diane having her find several Messier objects. After the moon went down at midnight, I began to run the Astronomical League Deep Sky Binocular list. Since each entry requires a description, I logged descriptions of the objects with my voice recorder. After I got home, I listened to the recording and wrote up the entries.
For the binocular list, I logged 34 objects and still have 26 to go. All but one (which I inadvertently skipped) will need to wait for the fall, after the winter constellations rise.
I decided at 4 AM to make a start of the Hershel 400 list. I am using O'Meara's book, and I did a "single night" of observing - with five objects found. O'Meara's book is written up with about 5 nights of observing per month. The objects were dim, but not impossible. Unlike Messier objects, careful star hopping is required to find these little
smudges. Well that's one percent of the list, with only 395 more objects left to go. Sigh...
I think that given a good night, it will probably be possible to run a couple month's of objects in a long night of observing. Maybe that will be my project for our next trip to Garner.
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