A respite from the wildfire smoke blanketing the region throughout the week and a predicted overnight overcast provided a brief window of opportunity to conduct our monthly astronomy night in Uxbridge on Friday, July 17.
Francine Jackson and I arrived around sunset to set up for the evening’s observing. Upon arrival John Kocur was almost finished setting up his 8-inch SCT. Francine set up the Astroscan and I brought an 80mm refractor and a Seestar S50. The 3-day waxing crescent Moon and Venus were just over 5° apart in the western sky, allowing us to observe before the sky was fully dark.
Sherine Hamade, the local park ranger, and her partner Savannah Salonich brought a small refractor and set it up on a nearby table, pointing it at the Moon and Venus.
We lost both the Moon and Venus fairly early due to the trees in the west, and with the sky not quite dark yet, concentrated mostly on bright stars and doubles.
I set up the Seestar north of the observing telescopes, and after some delay in getting it initialized, managed to capture images of M7, M20, and M8, comparing M7 with the view through the eyepiece of the 80mm refractor.
Francine concentrated on Vega and the Double Double, and John showed some of the brighter stars visible.
I showed Savannah where to find Mizar and Alcor, but her telescope, on its small tabletop tripod, could not be aimed that high in the sky.
As twilight had now mostly faded, I pointed the 80mm refractor at the Coathanger, one of Francine’s favorite objects, as well as a pair of double stars in Scorpius, upsilon and xi, and finally to delta Lyrae.
A favorable pass of the Tiangong space station was observed just after 9:14pm. There were two low passes of the International Space Station, but neither one was seen, as the first occurred in the northwest during twilight, and the second occurred later than we stayed, due to deteriorated sky conditions.
Clouds encroached from the north around 10:00pm until the sky was over 50% overcast, at which time we concluded the program. About ten guests observed with us on this night. The next scheduled River Bend night is Friday, August 28.
