River Bend Farm: April 2023
by Francine Jackson
April 21 was the first of eight scheduled nights this year at River Bend Farms, Uxbridge, Mass. Jim Hendrickson, John Kocur and Francine Jackson set up their telescopes on top of the hill at sunset, about 7:30, and already members of the public were beginning to come. The first object viewed was the incredibly small waxing crescent Moon in Jim’s new refractor, a sight so small it couldn’t be seen with most people’s eyes. Also, Venus, Mars, several double stars, galaxies, the Pleiades and M3 were shown.
In addition, a student, Michael, rode his bicycle there, carrying his binoculars and a tripod. He trained his binoculars on Venus, then slew throughout the sky.
Unfortunately, there were no passes of the International Space Station, but several guests did see what could have been a couple Lyrids.
As this was the first night of the season, about 15 persons came, some of whom were “regulars,” others who came after reading about it on the National Parks Service website. As we have sent them the tentative list for the rest of the season, we’re sure the numbers will increase as time goes on.
