Green Lake Star Party

I offer many thanks to Dennis, Mike, and Zong for their time, talents, and energy in creating a very enjoyable and informative star party! We were able to offer the public views through two refractors and one Newtonian with Dobsonian mount while the weather cooperated. Unfortunately, in typical Seattle style, around 7:00 p.m. the omnipresent clouds started rolling in so that the sky was completely overcast by about 9:15 p.m. when we decided to pack up our 'scopes. But before the clouds dominated, there were good views of the moon, Jupiter, M42, and Venus. However, the anticipated star of the show, Mars, was never really seen due to cloud cover. Dennis did briefly see Mars as a small, partially cloud covered dot behind the trees; but the anticipated glory and brightness of Mars at opposition tonight were not seen. This was disappointing, but Mars will still be around for a while as a very bright object.

The outreach aspect of tonight's star party was very effective with about thirteen or fourteen people who were able to experience good telescopic views of planets and the moon. Dennis had the same idea that struck me in December when I noticed the frenetic activity around the Bathhouse Theater while the star party area had few visitors. Dennis and I agreed that putting up a sign telling Bathhouse Theater patrons about the star party would be a good idea. The four of us agreed as the Star Party ended on a cloudy note that the event had been very worthwhile and enjoyable, definitely worth coming out for even though the viewing time was relatively short. After having to cancel three star parties due to weather since I volunteered to be coordinator of the Green Lake Star Party, it was very gratifying to actually be able to have a star party. I'm looking forward to the next one and anticipating even more fun when summer brings clear skies. (Well, in Seattle I guess "maybe" should always be attached to such a statement.:-))
Thanks again to all who participated!

Mary

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