Saturday, October 17
Weather: Clear 35°
Participants: Bob Janus, Jim Hendrickson, Jay Baccala, Francine Jackson, John Kocur
Attendees: 4
Observed: First quarter Moon, Saturn, Albireo, Saturn Nebula, M15, M39
Photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD8mpg
Report by: Jim Hendrickson
Saturday, October 17 was our first frigid night of the season, with meteorologists predicting the first hard freeze throughout most of Rhode Island. After an overcast day, the clouds fortunately cleared at sunset as predicted, and also, the expected northwest wind didn’t materialize.
Bob Janus opened the 8-inch refractor, covering for Mark Muncascy, who had an unexpected schedule conflict.
John Kocur set up the 12-inch Dobsonian as well as the equatorially-mounted Celectron C-5 that we tried to sell at AstroAssembly. The C5 was aimed at the Moon, while John moved the Dobsonian to Polaris, Vega, the Moon, and The Double Cluster.
Jay Baccala set up the Seestar S50 and produced images of Caldwell 34 (NGC 6960) and IC 5146 in Cygnus, and NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia.
Francine Jackson and I arrived just before the end of twilight. Francine served as greeter, pointed out constellations, and answered questions. I opened the 12-inch Meade SCT.
The Moon had already gone behind the trees in the southwest, so the first object for the 12-inch SCT was Albireo. Knowing that the planet Saturn would be the highlight in the 8-inch, I decided to showcase the Saturn Nebula (Caldwell 55, NGC 7009) in Aquarius, a bright planetary nebula that, under magnification, can sometimes evoke a likeness to its namesake planet. Next was the globular cluster in Pegasus, M15, suggested by Francine.
The last object of the session was the open cluster M39 in Cygnus, which I featured in the October 2026 monthly article in the Skyscraper, and Francine had been curious to see it.
We had a total of four visitors, one couple from Cumberland, and another from Coventry and Cumberland. The low visitor count was likely due to the sky being overcast for the entire day up until sunset. However, an advantage of having a small group is that we can engage with them for a longer time, answering questions, and having conversations, such as we did about constellations, how the sky changes during the seasons, telescopes, and spaceflight.
One couple returned to the telescope twice, and was very excited to see Albireo and the star clusters I showed.
For the first time since the peeptoads welcomed us in the spring, the chilly air cast a silence over the observatory grounds, with a lone cricket quietly chirping randomly in the shrubbery to the north of the Patton telescope, and we heard an eastern screech owl, and later a barred owl, in the woods to the east and north.
Jim and Francine noted that the ant hill near the southeast post of the 12-inch roll-off was still present, even after the recent rain storm, but no activity was evident due to the cold night air. Part of the wooden stirring stick fence that Francine placed around it two weeks ago during AstroAssembly was even still standing.
