Public Night July 11

This was the first Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory since the dome shutter mechanism was repaired. Weather during the day made the night's activities doubtful. The region had suffered strong thunderstorms with plenty of lightning, rain, and wind. As predicted, however, the storms departed the area as quickly as they came and left us with a sultry evening and clear/clearing skies. The first of our 25 visitors for the night arrived early and helped dump the office dehumidifier tank --probably about 20 gallons-- and more visitors gathered as night fell. Daylight Saving Time has pushed twilight well beyond our 9:30 start time so we stalled until about 10:00 when stars began to become visible followed by our true target for the evening: globular star cluster M4 in the constellation Scorpius. As the skies darkened we could begin to see tiny, diamond dust-like stars resolving in the center of the cluster's diffuse cloud-like appearance. Despite that, star clusters aren't a sight that "wows" the public but our visitors paid polite attention and expressed interest in what they were seeing. We also viewed stars Antares and Altair, the latter impressing even yours-truly with its colorful brilliance. At 10:45 a thick bank of clouds moved in to cover the sky and put a stop to our improved seeing. A modest success, this night, but I can hardly wait to show people Jupiter and the Moon in a month or two; they're real crowd-pleasers!