August 2003 MAC
Observing Session
August 2003
After the rainiest and
cloudiest summer in memory, everyone was ready for a good night under the
stars. With Mars within a few days of its Grand Opposition of '03 there
was lots of interest from friends and neighbors to see what the fuss was all
about. The weather report predictions had not been very promising all
week, but at the last minute the skies cleared and the session was on!
As always, the evening began with a cookout. As the sky darkened, all
present were treated to watching satellites being tracked in Hap's scope, a nice
Iridium flare, and later, good views of Mars. There were plenty of scopes
to go around (various flavors of Meade LX-200's seemed to be in abundance) to
give the many visitors a turn at the eyepiece. While the seeing right after
Mars rose was not optimum, some caught a sight of the red planet
through a telescope for the first time. Gene fascinated everyone with his real time web cam
images.
The air was humid, normal for August in the South, and though some deep sky
objects were observed, the views were less than spectacular because of the
bright sky background. An approaching thunderstorm 100 miles to the north began
lighting up the sky even further with distant lightning flashes about 2
AM. Clouds finally rolled in around 3 AM and those that remained packed it
in for the night.
Still, not a bad Star Party for August!
