October Open night

Open night at Stephens Memorial Observatory: Arriving in the dark I met two of my regular attendees: a woman and her 80+ year-old-mother. They drive up from a place about an hour away for every one of these sessions, even when it's the same objects for observation -- in this case it was the Moon. The drive took less time tonight so they arrived early. By the time the event was over we had 19 visitors aged 4 years and up look through the century-old refractor; we might have had more visitors but there was a big Cleveland Indians baseball game on TV. Guests were treated to superb views of the first-quarter Moon, however, as the atmosphere was extremely clear and mostly steady. I don't think I've personally ever seen the Moon so clearly with my own eyes! Using a massive antique eyepiece that I'm really growing to love we viewed the entire Moon at about 40X. With a modern eyepiece we saw excellent details within craters along the terminator and in the lunar maria at about 100X. After closing (10 PM) I experimented to see how high I could push the power on the old scope. I went as high as 370X but the image was too soft. I did get acceptable results at 270X, however, which was a shocker. The telescope still isn't tracking well when pointed south, however, so I couldn't stay fixed on any lunar detail for very long. I couldn't find the planet Neptune --1.5 degrees from the Moon this night-- in the orb's bright glare so I turned the telescope away from the Moon and targeted the Perseus Double Cluster: NGC 884 & 869. They filled the great antique eyepiece with diamond-like lights delighting our guests more than I had expected. This night was also to be the peak of the Orionid meteor shower but I saw not one "shooting star." Best viewing was after Moonset but I wasn't about to stay up that late or get up very early -- things to do Sunday!