River Bend Farm: November 2022
by Francine Jackson
Our final 2022 Night Sky at River Bend Farm event was held on Friday, November 18. With earlier sunsets, the observing began at 6:30pm, with three bright planets visible, and moonless dark sky conditions for best viewing of autumn deep sky objects.
The sky was clear and this was likely our coldest night out so far this year, with temperatures dropping from the low 30s into the 20s. Even with no wind, recent warm temperatures made this night feel exceptionally cold.
Francine Jackson and Jim Hendrickson brought their small refractors. Molly Cardoza, Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement for the Blackstone Heritage Corridor was present, and about a dozen guests came, mainly in two waves, and most of them stayed for the duration of the event, and were very engaged with questions and various discussions pertaining to astronomy, telescopes, and space exploration.
While we had hoped to showcase Mars, now nearing its closest point to Earth, but it rose too far north to clear the local treeline before the end of our session, so we concentrated on the other two available bright planets, Saturn and Jupiter.
A low, western pass of the International Space Station occurred early in the evening, and a couple of the visitors reported seeing faint meteors, likely from the presently active Taurids shower.
Besides the bright planets, some of the featured highlights were the double star Albireo in Cygnus, the Coathanger Cluster, the Double Cluster, the Pleiades, multiple star Omicron Cygni, and the Andromeda Galaxy.
After about 90 minutes, in a weather pattern seemingly prevalent at River Bend Farm, a thickening band of cloud moved in from the west, eventually covering more than 50% of the sky, ending a successful, but chilly night at River Bend, and our 2022 night sky sessions there.
