May BSIG Event - Saturday May 6th - Metcalf

[Sureshks]

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that the May BSIG Observing session will be held on Saturday night May 6th at the Metcalf observing field near Afton.

Jupiter will be a prime attraction, as will be the Virgo and Coma galaxies and many springtime globular star clusters.

As always, keep an eye on this thread for weather updates as we get closer. If the weather appears to be better on Fri. May 5th, we may switch to that night instead. I will try to make the assessment by Thursday evening May 4th... in time to be announced at the May MAS General Meeting that night.

If you're interested in coming, respond here, or drop me an e-mail at sureshks1@msn.com. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

So come on out for a nice Spring night under the stars. Bring lawn chairs, throw blankets and some goodies and beverages to keep you warm.

If you've got a telescope or binoculars, bring them! If you have questions on how to set up and use your equipment, we'd be happy to help!

For more information on Metcalf, and how to get there... see this link: http://www.mnastro.org/facilities/metcalf/

Since sunset will be around 8:45pm that evening, let's go with an 8:00pm start time for people to arrive and get situated.

We hope to see you!!

Suresh

[TrenaJ]

I will be attending. Keep me posted.

[Sureshks]

Hi all,

The weather forecast looks outstanding on Saturday night. Few if any clouds, and temps in the 50s after dark.

So Saturday night May 6th is a GO!!

I'll plan on seeing everyone at Metcalf about 8pm that night!! Be sure to bring some extra clothes, gloves, hat, a lawn chair, waterproof shoes in case the grassy field is still wet, a warm beverage and perhaps a goodie to share. I'm planning to bring cookies!

Suresh

[Wayne]

Suresh, I'll be there too.

[Sureshks]

Hi Wayne,

Great!!! The volunteers will get to Metcalf at 7:30pm Saturday. See you there!

Suresh

[joanneb]

Hi Suresh,
I will be there too. Looking forward!
Joanne Burgio

[Sureshks]

Sounds good!

Suresh

[cmac7203]

I'm in. Bringing goto 9.25" SCT and Manual 4" refractor on equatorial mount.

[bhamil]

Suresh, I will be coming too. My son has a baseball in Rochester, so I won't be arriving until 9pmish. I am Hoping to get my daughter and some of her friends to come as well.

[tugger]

Big thanks to Suresh for getting this going last night. Despite the clouds, it was still fun! It also cleared up around 11-12 or so when everyone seemed to have given up on getting any viewing besides the moon in. Thanks for taking the clouds with you!

Steve and I stayed until about 3 or so shooting the breeze and letting an old C8 run for a while.

Hopefully the weather is better in June!

[Sureshks]

Hi all,

Last night turned out to be a great night!

I arrived 45 minutes early and there were already about 20 cars and more than 10 telescopes set up!

Special thanks goes to Clayton, Valts, Steve B, Charlie E, Robert, Chris J., Trena J, Wayne B and the other people who volunteered their time and equipment. We had just about every kind of telescope design on hand for the beginners to sample. Refractors, large straight-tube Newtonian reflectors, smaller ones, large truss Dobsonians and several SCTs on every kind of mount! There were a lot of good questions asked during the evening... so it was great to have so many MAS volunteers on hand to show and discuss their scopes!

We counted at least 30 vehicles parked, about 50 people and more than 20 telescopes set up. The field was pretty full!! Good thing the grassy field was expanded last year!

Too bad the sky remained cloudy during the early evening. There were enough sucker holes to view the Moon and Jupiter often. The Great Red Spot was perfectly situated, and it became the star of the night... along with the Galilean moons.

Most people left around 10:30pm. Naturally, within minutes after they left, the sky turned beautifully clear in the northeast. We viewed M13 thru Robert's C8, as the rest of the scopes were already taken down. By around 11pm the entire sky was clear. Go figure!

Robert, Steve B and I spent the next couple hours tooling around the sky. Later we viewed Saturn and M4 thru the C8 too. Too bad it didn't clear earlier. Oh well, it looks like everyone had a fun time anyway...

Charlie McElween and my Rover friend Allison took a few pics of the evening, which I attached to this post.

We'll do this again next month! The next B-SIG observing night is scheduled, weather permitting, for Saturday evening June 10th!

Suresh