North Scituate Library Star Party, November 2024
by Robert Janus
North Scituate Library
November 15, 2024
By Bob Janos
The North Scituate Library's November 15th star party was held under clear sky with mild temperatures. The session ran from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Dave Huestis and Bob Janus along with Alex Willians (reference librarian) and Alyce Margadonna (youth services librarian) greeted the 25 patrons and their parties who had registered. This event was held at the gazebo area across the street from the library.
The gazebo served as a very nice visitor's center where a variety of astronomy outreach literature was available.
The many sources of bright lights surrounding the area blocked out most of the features in the night sky. However, the full moon, Saturn and Jupiter provided very pleasing objects to view in spite of the lighting. We had an 8 inch Dobsonian and the library's table top Newtonian for people to look through. People were encouraged to get hands-on experience with the library telescope. Folks teamed up with one person aiming the red dot finder at either the moon or Jupiter while a second person looked for the object to appear in the eyepiece. We reminded folks that they can use their library cards to take this telescope home.
