Chase Farm: April 2023
by Jim Hendrickson
The first of two Starry Night at Chase Farm events took place on Friday night, April 14. Kathy Hartley from Friends of Hearthside, our hosts for this event, informed us that the event sold out in less than 24 hours, and as an accommodation to those who weren’t able to get in, it would be split into two sessions: the first group would arrive at 7:00pm for the presentation, the move out to the telescope field while the second group would arrive, at 8:00pm for the presentation.
After a record-breaking 92°F in the afternoon, temperatures moderated into the low 70s by sunset, with a steady, light breeze from the southeast, that briefly brought in the smell of the smoke from the wildfires in Exeter when it turned to the south-southwest for a few minutes around sunset. Predicted mostly-cloudy skies remained about 50% cloud cover through the session, leaving enough sky open for observing some of the more notable objects in the sky.
Bob Janus, Francine Jackson, and Jim Hendrickson set up telescopes (Bob’s 6-inch SCT, Francine and Jim had 4-inch refractors), then Francine went into the visitor center to give her presentation “The Mid-Spring Sky” after a brief introduction by Kathy.
As the first group arrived on the field from the presentation, the sky was still fairly bright in twilight, but Venus was easily visible and became the primary object early on. As the sky darkened a bit, Mercury became visible (albeit only through the telescope), as did Mars, which was situated less than 1/4° from epsilon Geminorum, making for an attractive double through the low power eyepiece.
About 45 minutes later, when the second group arrived after the second presentation, a few from the first group remained, and the sky was now fully dark. Although clouds prevented deep sky observations, we were able to view three planets, the Pleiades, and Mizar and Alcor in Ursa Major.
There were about 70 guests in total, and despite less than ideal sky conditions, they all very much enjoyed the views as well as the presentation and conversation. Questions and topics of discussion ranged from Webb telescope to astrophotography, meteor showers, and our recent trip to Iceland. Many visitors were interested in visiting Ladd and Seagrave Observatories, and some were planning to return to the next Chase Farm Starry Night on August 23.
