River Bend Farm: July 2022
by Jim Hendrickson
The second River Bend Farm stargazing event of 2022 took place on Friday, July 22, and once again, the event received no support or promotion from the park. Bob Janus, Francine Jackson, and Jim Hendrickson set up around 8pm for observing, beginning just after 8:30pm. This date was chosen for its dark sky conditions, as the Moon was a waning crescent, and Saturn wouldn’t rise until late evening.
One park visitor came by to talk for a few minutes before dark, and friends Ruth and Marc from North Smithfield came and stayed to observe with us.
Bob set up his 6-inch SCT, and Francine and Jim brought their 4-inch and 3-inch refractors.
Of all our nights at River Bend, this was probably the clearest and most transparent, despite warm and humid conditions. Several fireflies could also be seen flickering away near the treeline east of the observing field.
A low pass of the International Space Station was observed during twilight.
We took advantage of the unusually clear skies to explore some sights in Scorpius, including Antares and M4, and Ptolemy’s Cluster, M7. We attempted to find comet C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS in Ophiuchus with our small refractors, with no luck.
Views of Vega and the Double Double, M11, the Coathanger cluster were enjoyed by those in attendance, and concluded the session at about 9:30pm. The next River Bend night has been scheduled for Friday, August 12.
