Quarterly novice session 13 Jul 2024 from 8:00pm-11:00pm Point 10 Recreation Area 2 at Stanley Draper Lake. The Moon rises at 1:38pm and Sunset is at 8:45pm. Mercury and Venus will be up.
If you got a new telescope or you just have a telescope that you haven’t used in awhile bring it out to get some help setting up and using it. All events are weather permitting.
Take Exit 11/11A from I-240 then south for a short distance on S Douglas Blvd turn east/left on N Stanley Draper Dr and go just under a 1/2 mile to the Point 10 entrance on the right. Proceed about 1/2 mile to Area 2.
Sky & Telescope message tonight reports there will be an occultation of Spica by the moon
about 45 minutes after sunset 40 North -95 West. Reappearance about an hour later.
Yes my app says it will happen just after 10:08pm CDT. I’m going to setup my 8” EdgeHD and will do a video to catch it disappear. It is happening on the dark edge of the Moon so it should show up good.
Also have 13P/Olbers is a 7th magnitude Comet appearing in the constellation Leo Minor.
The last time I read the fine print for Flicker, you surrendered your rights to your images when you posted to their site. Is that changed? IMHO, every site I link to provided a hacker a link back to me.
When I got there had some clouds right around the Sun. Once I got the telescope setup I synced on the Moon and then on the Sun. The Sun had a lot of sunspots. Was able to look at Mercury and Venus. Had an ISS pass over. There was a group there having an engagement party a couple of them came by and looked at the Moon. We had a couple of new club members show up. One of them have a telescope they need help with but didn’t bring it. Another one is looking at what type of telescope to get. Had a couple just visiting that had a telescope that they got as a retirement gift. They got it out but the internal rechargeable battery wasn’t working. We tried plugging in with an external power pack that didn’t work either. They were having problems finding anything when it was working. It is an NexStar Evolution 8" SCT and the mirror locks were tightened down. Loosed the mirror locks and switched to a low power eyepiece. Was able to get it manually pointed at the Moon which looked good after focusing it.
I did get a video of Spica just before the occultation by the Moon. Messed up and was trying to center things up and missed occultation.