On August 18th, the Norman Bird Sanctuary held a members-only viewing of the Perseid meteor shower scheduled to peak between August 12th and 13th. Members of Skyscrapers were invited to attend with telescopes to enhance the event. The evening was warm, in the upper 70’s. Although the forecast called for a cloudless night, hazy conditions persisted throughout the night. The event began at 9pm.
Volunteers from Skyscrapers included John Kocur, who brought Francine Jackson’s recently refurbished 12” GoTo Dobsonian telescope. Despite the hazy conditions John was able to show the participants M13, M11, M31, Albireo, and others. Bob Swift brought a Seestar 50 and entertained the guests with views of M13 and M51. Mike Kerr brought a Questar 3.5” and was able to show Deneb and Mizar/Alcor. Michael Corvese brought an 11” SCT hoping to observe deep sky objects toward the center of the galaxy, but the conditions were so hazy that seeing Scorpius and Sagittarius with the naked eye was a challenge. Instead, Michael teamed with Mercedes Rivero-Hudec who brought binoculars. Participants were asked to look at Mizar and Alcor with the naked eye and determine if they could see a double star. A few could, but most could not. Next, they were asked to observe the system with binoculars, where they could clearly see the double star system. Lastly, they observed the system with the 11”, where they could clearly see that Mizar was also a double. The system contains 6 stars; Alcor is a double and each of the stars of Mizar are, in fact, double stars. This method of progressive observing with the participants seemed to add more depth and sparked many conversations and questions.
The event was scheduled to end at 11pm and it was just the time that clouds started covering the sky. Although hazy conditions and the early time decreased the number of Perseids that were observed, Skyscrapers and their telescopes were able to add to the program in a constructive way. Thank you to Norman Bird Sanctuary for inviting us and thank you to the volunteers who participated.
