Is the club participating in doing star party events at Camp ClapHans at the JD McCarty Center in Norman?
I believe I’d heard, or seen, that we were going to do weekly viewings which were to begin tonight.
Hi, Ed!
I’m out of town until Week 3 so it’s up to Chris & Mike. Sorry for the confusion.
Eileen
The weather is not good for either Monday or Tuesday this week so I suspect it is cancelled. Sharla knows. However, here are the official dates so please post if you intend to go out.
June 3rd(4th)
June 10th (11th)
June 17th (18th)
June 24th (25th)
July 8th (9th)
July 15th (16th)
We aim for Monday nights and use Tuesdays as backups.
In the Fall - October 18th- 20th Dates and times TBD.
All are welcome to come out with us. With all this rain bring bug spray but use it far from scopes.
Thanks for the dates. I will get them added to the Club calendar. I will not be able to make it to any of the June events.
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It doesn’t look to good for tonight’s event. Who is making the call on this one? If I don’t hear anything by 6pm I’ll cancel it on the calendar.
Hello everyone!
The cloud cover looks like close to 50% for tonight. Tomorrow night might be better but keeping an eye on it and still thinking we might be a go for tonight. We will make the go/no-go call by 4PM.
As a reminder,
The McCarty Center is located at 2002 E. Robinson in Norman, which is to the East of Norman. The camp sessions are held on the JD McCarty Center campus in their camp area, which is a large open area with a few camp buildings away from the rest of the complex. There is good visibility to horizons in all directions, with moderate light pollution.
https://www.jdmc.org/www.jdmc.org/campclaphans
The camp is in the far South end of the JD McCarty campus, shown in the above link with a circular drive and a cluster of 3 small buildings.
We have been setting up to the North of the buildings, on the West side of the road, between the buildings and the outdoor bleachers.
Setup will start at 7PM with solar viewing early and twilight around 8:40PM. The kids should be off to bed before 10PM.
Standard star party light protocol/etiquette will be in effect for the most part. Planets, binaries, clusters, and other brighter objects (including the Moon of course!) have worked well in past years at this event.
Anyone with a telescope and who enjoys working with kids is welcome! There is plenty of space to setup and the kids will only have an hour or so after dark before they generally need to head off to bed, so multiple scopes looking at different objects works very well.
OK, making a call here. Weather is looking much better tomorrow I think. All we will have tonight is a sky full of clouds with a patch here or there if we are lucky.
Just spoke with Sharla at JDMC. Pushing the Camp star party to tomorrow night.
Sorry for the later than intended notice, I was tied up on a conference call past 4:30PM!
See you out there tomorrow!
Quick reminder. We are setting up after 7PM tonight at the camp. I probably wont be there till close to 8PM.
I’ll be there, too. Likely 8:00’ish.
Monday, June 17th - I’ll make a call later today as cloud cover may be an issue. Tomorrow may be better. Feel free to RSVP or put in your own two cents regarding the forecast!
Eileen
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Based upon what Ed A. posted, we’ll have a better chance Tuesday night.
I’ll tell Sharla.
Cancelled for Monday night.
We’ll try for Tuesday. Tomorrow should be a few degrees cooler.
Eileen
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Winds are way way too high both nights for my scopes, even if I wasn’t still working on my old house. Will not be attending this week.
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6/18 - Fellow Outreach group. What are you seeing?
I see major clouds to the west…broken clouds overhead and to the East. Winds are high.
What say ye? GO or NO GO for Tuesday night?
Who’s coming tonight?
Post by 5:30 pm so we can make a decision please.
Eileen
I’m thinking we won’t be able to set up and have any viewing.
For Tuesday forecast from NOAA:
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=35.218493&lon=-97.4903178
Winds are high. Will we even get a wide enough sucker hole to show the Moon?
Gerald, what’s your vote?
Does anyone see openings in the clouds?
Satellite shows a heavier band of clouds coming from SW Oklahoma.
Timing looks not good and the wind will continue.
no go .
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Thanks, All!
I’ll tell Sharla we are cancelled for tonight. 
I had already given her a head’s up.
Eileen
Next try? Monday and Tuesday of next week!
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6/24 / I had clear skies in Norman with a few high cirrus until just recently. Now there seem to be lots of clouds moving in from the North.
T-storms are in the forecast for Tuesday evening.
What do the rest of you see?
Who is coming?
I am concerned about the heat index.
No moon until 11:31 pm.
Eileen
4:15 pm