Austin Astronomical Society Observatory Reports

Saturday May 18 2013 COE Star Party

9709 — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:42:43 GMT

Saturday May 18, 2013
CoE Star Party
James Hall
6:15p-11:15p
Guests: 20

Tara and I arrived about 6:15 p.m. Grounds looked mostly good. Sticker plants starting to popup everywhere but not too bad yet. Picked up a blue cup and thermos in the parking lot, as well as an old hand held video game. I assume those items got lost in the dark from last star party guests. Jim Sheets stopped by and I gave the items to him. He works for COE now and was happy to drop them off at office in case they have a lost and found.

I cleaned the desks and all the glass in the observatory. We are running out of paper towels, but otherwise everything cleaned up nicely. I also picked up 1 chair out of the observatory that had most of the covering missing and took it to the dumpster with my truck.

Internet not working. All red lights working. Display working. Scopes did pretty well all night. The Forrest scope tracked well all night. Probably 90%. Switched it between Jupiter and the moon.

The Harlan still has the stiffness that Darin mentioned before, but otherwise tracked well.

Weather warm but nice breeze from south. Sky was about 50% clouds on arrival and 10% cloud cover during final hour of viewing.

Viewed Jupiter, Saturn, Mizar, Moon, and Hercules Cluster.

Used the Display hooked wirelessly to iPad through first part of night to show Positions of Saturn and Jupiters moons, Exoplanets, Solar System Models, Moon HD for landing sites. Then switched it off as night got darker to preserve dark adaption.

Several "Wow's" heard throughout the night.

Last guests left about 10:45

Secured all scopes, lights, observatory

Closed up at 11:15

-----

- James Hall

CoE Star Party

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:15:13 GMT

Friday, 14 May 2013
CoE Star Party
Jim Sheets
Guests: 7

Opened observatory at 8:30pm, group of 7 arrived at 9:00pm.
Sky conditions, hazy, high thin clouds about 40% cover. Viewed
Crescent Moon and Saturn, did asterism tour with what was available.
Answered lots of questions and chatted (talking points) for a while.
The group departed at 10:00pm. I waited until 10:20, then closed.
The Harlin Smith worked well after I snugged the Declination friction
ring just a bit. The roof pull ropes were all bunched and knotted while
opening the roof, so I made sure that they were stowed correctly in the
wall canisters after closing. The grounds need to be mowed. I will
suggest at the office that they have LCRA get on that task.

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143
N946JS

Friday May 3, 2013

9709 — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:09:04 GMT

Friday May 3, 2013

CoE Star Party

Darin Koch

7:15p-11:45p

Guests: 35

Observatory clean, scopes working, internet still not working, monitor and all other lights working. We had a clear night with no Moon, little to no wind. The first car arrived with a family of 4, and the dad helped me to install the Forrest plaque on the Ealing when it was getting dark. The seeing was 5/10, but improved to about 7/10.

We viewed Jupiter (4 moons) with Io about to touch the disk, M51 (Forrest), M81, M3, M13, Saturn (Smith). M51 was extraordinary! Dust lanes easily detected. It tracked perfectly all night.

I showed the guests 'Starry Night Deluxe' constellations and animated planets movements and an animation on the big screen and later turned it off for good dark skies. One couple from Georgia lingered and wanted to see Saturn at its highest and they were the last to leave. They were very pleased at its sharp rings.

Temp bottomed out at 42º F, and I managed to remain in my denim shorts as there was no wind!

Shut down at 11:45p and stayed in the camper for early departure for TSP next morning.

CoE Star Party

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:07:45 GMT

CoE Star Party

Monday 29 April 2013

Jim Sheets

16 Guests

Arrived at CoE about 8:30pm and checked in at front desk, they had a party that wanted to

start at 9:00pm. Open the observatory and set up the Ealing on Jupiter and the Harlin on

the Orion Nebula. It was mostly cloudy everywhere except in the west. The guests enjoyed

those views along with some talking points. Fortunately, Saturn became visible about 9:45

and I got a few "Wow's" with that image. The group left all at once about 10:30 just as the

rest of the sky was clearing. I used the scopes for personal viewing until around 11:30 then

closed. The building and grounds were clean and in good shape.

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143
N946JS

Coe Star Party

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:52:28 GMT

CoE Star Party
Saturday 27 April 2013
Jim Sheets
Guests: 18

Got a call, short notice, to open the observatory, as Mark F. was not available.
Arrived at CoE at 7:30. The sky was mostly overcast. Opened the roof and prepped the
scopes for use. Around 8:30 the western sky was partly cloudy and I was able to show
the guests on hand the wonder of Jupiter. It was visible for about an hour and everyone
present got a look.
The grounds were clean and the building was in good shape. I had to snug the declination
clutch on the Harlin, as it was too loose to hold position.
Most of the guests left by 9:30. two couples lingered for conversation for a while. Began
closing at 10:00. More guests arrived... the sky was opaque. More guests arrived...
Did talking points until 11:00.

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356

CoE Star Party

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:13:19 GMT

From:	startracker75@hotmail.com
Saved:	Sat 4/26/13 1:07 PM
To:	EEO

CoE Star Party
Friday, 26 April 2013
Jim Sheets
30 Guests

Arrived at CoE and checked in at 7:45pm. The sky was mostly cloudy.
Opened the roofs and activated the 12-1/2 Harlin. Had just enough clearing
in the western sky to have the early guests observe Jupiter. By 8:30 some parents
and a Cub Scout troupe had joined the few who were already present. The sky had
several layers of clouds and in some areas there were high, thin ceros clouds that were
thin enough to faintly see some asterisms. Did a laser pointer tour where possible.

I spent most of the evening doing talking points about the solar system and deep space.
fielded numerous questions until the group left at 10:30.
Closed up and left at 10.45

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143
N946JS

Saturday April 20 2013 COE Star Party

9709 — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:51:24 GMT

Saturday Apr 20, 2013

CoE Star Party

James Hall & Tara Heine

7:30p-11:30p

Guests: 90

Tara and I arrived just before 7pm. Grounds mostly good, some trash in the parking lot and grounds, but easily picked up. Weeds along the path are about due to be mowed, but not too bad yet. Tara setup her 10 inch Intelliscope while I checked out the observatory.

Observatory was secure and clean, equipment looked good, eye piece cases looked good. There is one chair that is pretty torn up with padding mostly exposed. It is located on the north wall that I meant to take out of the observatory, but I forgot, so I'll have to grab it next time. It's just seen better days.

Scopes working mostly well but the Harlan kept trying to float into the vertical position when I was trying to target several objects. It was almost like it had too heavy of a counter weight on it in back. I'll have to follow up with Darin if any thing has been adjusted recently.

Internet not working, but the large display and all other lights turned on and working well. I hooked up the apple TV to the iPad and started the iPad mirroring. Cars started arriving immediately so I put the 16 inch scope on the sun and the Harlan for those early bird observers.

The iPad wireless connection to the display quit working about 9:00 p.m. So I just switched to pointing at the iPad itself through the night to show off moon landing spots and current orbits of the planets.

Guest came and went in groups all night, it was hard to keep track of an actual count, but was at least 90. The moon light kept the path well lit all the way to the parking lot. Note: I like the red solar lights that someone added to the entrances. Thanks to whoever did that, I think it was a great idea.

It stayed clear of clouds all night. The seeing was poor at times but not too bad. Tara and I helped everyone viewed the Moon, Jupiter (4 moons), Saturn, Orion Nebula, Mizar, Betelgeuse, Sirus. I also gave normal sky tour of constellations AAS history, and notice about upcoming events.

Lots of boy scouts and guests asking questions and having a great time. Nice mix of children and adults. The best part of the night was when this boy saw Jupiter. His mouth dropped open and yelled "Wow!" He had the biggest smile on his face as he quickly got back into line to see it again.

Many guests noted they would return to the public star party nights. Donations in box.

Secured the observatory at 11:30 p.m. Temp in low 50's, wind gusting.

All in all a great night. I can't wait until next time. :)

Friday Apr 19, 2013

9709 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:06:59 GMT

Friday Apr 19, 2013
CoE Star Party
Darin & Dana Koch
8:15p-11:23p

Guests: 15

Observatory clean, scopes working, internet not working, monitor and all other lights working. We had a clear night with 65% waxing gibbous Moon, wind 0-5mph from east. The first car arrived and i could smell cigarette smoke in the observatory from them from the parking area! So that's how i knew the wind had to be from the easst. The seeing was poor due to the front that moved thru earlier.

We viewed the Moon, Jupiter (4 moons), M42, M51, M3, M13, Saturn. As poor as the seeing was 2/10, it had at times improved to about a 6/10 in short brief bursts of a second here and there where you could tell that Jupiter had some detail in its eq bands. So overall, the guests greatly enjoyed the views thru both telescopes. M51 could barely see extended detail due to the 65% lit Moon.

I showed the guests 'Starry Night Deluxe' constellations and animated planets movements and an animation of the 4-8-2024 total solar eclipse that will commence in 11 years on the site. A little boy was very fascinated by that. I know i've got to learn my Starry Night Pro 4.5 software more, but always seem to have a hard time going between the two.

Temp bottomed out at 50º F.

Left at 11:23p

Friday Apr 12, 2013

9709 — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:41:38 GMT

Friday Apr 12, 2013

CoE Star Party

Darin & Dana Koch

7:30p-11:30p

Guests: 40

Grounds good, both scopes working good, all lights in working condition. A fine evening with good clear skies, not great transparency, but reasonable allowing us to see worthwhile deep sky objects. We had 2 good pushes of visitors at first, about 17 in each, then a few more trickled in. I worked on the HDTV to get the ND filter back in place and attached several more black plastic tabs with 3M double sided tape that won't come off anytime soon without great effort.

We saw Jupiter, M42, M46, M51, M65-66, M3, M13, M81-82. I played several movies (LRO Apollo landing sites, star sizes, galaxie collisions) and showed them my two hi-res Hubble photos of M51 and M31 Halo deep field and zoomed to show the incredible details. Guests really liked that.

A very mild evening, got down to about 61º or so.

Left just after 11:30p

Friday Mar. 29, 2013

9709 — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:47:29 GMT

Friday Mar. 29, 2013
CoE Star Party
Darin & Dana Koch
6:50p-11:35p
Guests: 45

The grounds were good, the building, telescopes in good condition. Weather was partly cloudy at first, but later turned mostly cloudy. Then it cleared to see Jupiter, M42, M51, so several guests were treated to good views of Jupiter and 4 moons. Ealing and Harlan tracked well.

During cloudy times, we showed guests movies and pictures on the big screen, then turned off to show the skies when it cleared. A wedding was going on at the lodge, but many guests still ventured out during the improbable skies. I really didn't think it was going to clear, but it did, but was slightly thin cloudy up high.

I worked a little more on the 11" Celestron CPC in the Ruof observatory. David Ault could not come out due to work duties. So I went in to record the firmware versions from each of the two hand paddles so we can begin to troubleshoot why it's not aligning. But this time using the illustrated handpaddle from the manual, it was most stubborn at doing anything correctly. Pressing a slew direction would send the scope slewing but would not stop after letting up... unless press the UNDO button to stop. It would not track at all after manual setting it.

So hopefully, this Saturday, we can try again with David to figure out what the problem is.

Temp 64º.

COE Star Party March 23, 2013

9709 — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:13:04 GMT

Canyon of Eagles Star Party

March 23, 2013

Saturday

Guests: Around 150

Operator: James Hall

Tara and I arrived at Canyon of Eagles Park about 6:30 pm. Checked in at the office to let them know the observatory would be open soon. Then we headed out to the Eagle Eye Observatory. Grounds good. Observatory Secure. Opened up. Scopes powered on and tracked about 90%. I forgot to check internet.

Roof opened. Parking lights up. Tara setup her 10 inch Dob in the field while I hooked up the iPad mirroring to the observatory display. We brought Emily, she's almost 5 now, and we wanted to bring her out now that it was a little warmer. We set her up with a tent in the back of the truck.

The sky was about 30% cloud cover but was quickly clearing up. The moon was almost full and seemed about 80% waxing gibbous so it was pretty bright blocking out most deep sky objects. Jupiter was easily seen and targeted all night long.

Guest started arriving immediately just after dark and wow did they fill the observatory. It was standing room only for quite a period of time. I had to open another door to the observatory just to make it feel less crowded and give more room for people to get in and out. Tara looked just as swamped with people in a large line out in the field. We actual lost count of people in the dark. It could have been well over 150. It was just good to see so many children and adults excited about what they were viewing. Boy scouts were also there asking questions and all were intrigued with the many different astronomy apps that were projecting on the display. The favorites tonight were Exoplanet and Distant Suns 3.

Presented normal sky tour of visible constellations. AAS History. Public Star Party nights. It was good to hear that several people were going to come back for those. Donations in box.

Guests all left by 11:00 pm.

Noticed that Saturn came up about 11:30 in the east as we were finishing closing up.

Packed up and left about 11:40 p.m. Temp 58 degrees.

COE Star Party March 22, 2013

9709 — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:19:59 GMT

Date: March 22, 2013

Operator: James Hall

Guests: About 30

Arrived about 7 p.m.

Cindy the resort manager was at the gate. Talking to a hiker named Brian. He wanted to see the observatory, so I gave him a lift up to the EEO. There was a couple of trash items in the parking lot that were easily picked up. Probably left over from the busy spring break star parties last week.

Grounds looked good. Observatory secure. Opened up doors, lights on, roof opened well. (Although a fairly large brown spider was crawling on the rope which gave me a slight startle.)

Setup lights on the entrance. Turned on the new table lights for the path.

I put the solar filter and solar scope on the Eailing. By the time I got it setup correctly we only had about 15 minutes to observe before the sun went down. Then I put the Eailing on the moon with a 40 mm Orion Eye Piece and the Harlan on Jupiter with the 13 mm. Both scopes tracked very well all night. A few of the eye pieces had their rubber eye shields loose in eye piece case, so put those eye shields in a separate box in the cabinet until I can figure out how to get them back on.

Darin K showed up and helped me adjust the display on our big screen. I like to have it on during the bright moon nights. In the dimmest mode it works great to show the iPad apps through the wireless connection. Guests seem to love Moon HD, Solar Walk, and Exoplanet the most. He also worked a little bit on the Harlan to smooth it out and then worked on the new observatory scope.

Guests continued to arrive on and off all night up to 10:30pm. Gave them normal sky tour of constellations and stars. App demo's, AAS History, and many vowed to return for some of the upcoming star parties. Some donations in box.

Closed up without problems. Darin still working on the new CPC scope in the smaller observatory when I Left at 11:15 p.m. Temp 55 F

Friday Mar. 15, 2013

9709 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:07:12 GMT

Friday Mar. 15, 2013
CoE Star Party
Darin & Dana Koch
7:30p-11:30p
Guests: 120

We had a heck of a sized group on Friday night towards end of spring break. Dana ran the observatory, while I set up my 16" dob and 25x100 binos/mount outside and entertained guests and overflow with fabulous views of the comet PANSTARRS and a myriad of other objects. James Hall and Tara were on the field observing with Tara's new telescope.

The first guests were from a methodist church which were parked in two vans at the gate. They had about 20 in their group. Many families, youngsters got to see the comet, waxing crescent moon, Jupiter, M42, M81-82, Beehive, Eskimo, Pleiades, M51, M3, Rigel A-B, Trio in Leo,

The grounds were good, the building, telescopes in good condition. Ealing and Harlan tracked well. I discovered the TV filter came out of its taped position and was hanging down a little behind the cardboard cover. I'm gonna fix it, no worries. So, I took it home with me...and plan to get another one made to double up to combat the bright screen to make viewing softer. I'd anticipated that it may not be dark enough from the getgo, but decided to get one at a time to see how it faired. They will be cemented together and act as single unit, and I will make a better retention system, so that it'll be removable when we need a bright screen during daytime.

We stayed in our camper overnight by the EEO and did maintenance the next day sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning eyepieces, along with a solar program at 1-2p Saturday in the courtyard by the restaurant. We had about 30 people come by to take a look thru the 40mm Coronado PST, and Dana's 10" telescope. I counted about 20 sunspots thru the 10"....many were in groups but tiny. All have never seen the sun thru H-Alpha wavelength before. They were very impressed. What a pretty day it was. I later mounted the PST on the Ealing's camera mount as it has 1/4x20 threads that accept the PST and man was it a perfect mount to view the sun. Rock solid and very easy to point and able to track in solar mode. You just see more with a rock solid mount.

CoE Star Party

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:42:47 GMT

CoE Star Party
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Start Temp 72f, end Temp 58f
Conditions: Transparency & Seeing Average improving to good.
Guests: 100+
Jim Sheets

Arrived at 6:45 and checked in. Opened EEO at 7:00. The sky was cloudless, with a hazy brilliantly colored sunset
which rendered comet watching impossible. By 7:15 I had about 20 guests and continued to get SLAMED the
rest of the evening, (Spring Break crowd). Checked for comet ocassionally until crescent Moon was below the horizon.
Lots of guests wanted to see that comet... sorry folks, not tonight.

By about 9:30 I attempted a head count: 45-50 inside obs., the line to get in was backed up all the way to the parking lot.
There were several groups scattered around the viewing tables. Total estimate about 110 folks on the park at 9:30.

I fired up my Wicked Lazer and did a sky-tour for 30 minutes, giving the crowd something to see. There were lots of WOW's
at the Ealing eyepiece as Jupiter & moons impressed most folks. Stayed on that target most of the evening. The Harlin saw
the Crescent Moon, Orion Nebula, M81-M82, and Saturn.

In an attempt to keep the crowd entertained, they were presented with a Solar System overview narative and a Lightspeed &
distance narative, opened the floor for questions and hopefully, answered them satisfactorily.

By 11:30, Saturn was high enough above the horizon to start viewing it, so both scopes looked at it until the last guests
departed at 12:45a.

I closed the facility and departed at 1:00a, leaving one AAS member on the field promising to reopen & then re-lock the gate
when he left.

That's my report,
Jim Sheets

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143AMED
N946JS

Coe Star Party 03/11/13

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:50:06 GMT

Coe Star Party
Monday 11 March 2013
Jim Sheets
Guests: come-n-go (estimate 65)
Checked in at Office 6:45

Arrived at observatory at 7:00 pm. There was a AAS member setting up on the field.
Opened building and began setting up the instruments. With in 10 minutes 20 guests
Had arrived. All were wanting a look at panSTARSS comet. During the 1/2 hour between
sundown and dark we were all looking for the comet. The sky conditions overall were good.
Transparency: excellent, Seeing: Good, however the western horizon was hazy and there were
no less than 5 aircraft contrails near the setting sun with short tails apearing similar to comets.
panSTARSS was visible through binos for a short time. I used a laser pointer and passed my binos
around. Hopefully some actually caught a glimps of the comet.

I continued to get the scopes up and running. The Ealing Telrad had been left on and the batteries
were dead. I had arrived straight from work and did not have spares with me. I could not locate any
in the cabinets. A guest came to my rescue and loaned 2 AA's for the cause.

The rest of the evening was fun with guests in and out, averaging about 30 in the building, about 40 at
one time during the evening. This was the first day of Spring Break which generated the larger crowd.
I suspect that Wednesday March 13 will have even more guests.

I had a line of people at both scopes continuously. Targeted; Jupiter, Andromida gal, Orion Neb, Double Cluster,
Mizar & Alcor.

The building and grounds were in excellent condition, and the instruments worked well.

The last guests departed at 11:20. I closed up and left at 12:00 am. I locked the gate leaving 2 AAS members
on the field. (they said they were staying all night)

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143
N946JS

Friday Mar. 1, 2013

9709 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:36:56 GMT

Friday Mar. 1, 2013

CoE Star PartyDarin Koch

6:15p-10:45p

Guests: 27

Grounds excellent, EEO floors good and clean. Internet not working. Both scopes working. Ealing and Harlan tracked 100%. Donations light working. Retrieved $48 in donations to give to Treasurer on Monday. Glow in the dark bricks illuminated very nicely.

After spending 3 days off work due to the stomach bug, I noticed both roof sections were very hard to roll off, even with gloves on. Unless I was just terribly weak, not sure why it has ever been that stiff of resistance. I say a new rope is needed soon.

Weather was brisk with a frontal passage moving thru causing poor seeing 2/10. The skies cleared up nicely and no clouds anywhere except down to 5º above western horizon that I could make out. First had a family of 7 that I got to spend a good half hour with and then upon them leaving, 3 more vehicles came and flooded the obsevatory with about 18, mostly young boys from a boy scout troop I guess. For some reason, their chapperones stood outside for the most part while they swarmed over me with all sorts of questions. Then another couple came and spent about 20 minutes with them and that was it.

We viewed M42, Jupiter (all4 moons), M79, M81-82, Rigel.

Coyotes were heard off n on in the distance.

Close temp about 44º.

COE Star Party Feb 22, 2013

9709 — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:24:33 GMT

Friday Feb. 22, 2013

CoE Star Party

James Hall

6:00p-10:30p

Guests: 7

Tara and I arrived about 6:00pm, sky was cloudy about 70% overcast. Stopped by the front desk and let them know we were there.

Grounds good, EEO opened. EEO floors good. Eye Piece Case still looks great. Internet not working.

Both scopes intact and powered on. Setup iTV and iPad mirroring on the display. Setup laptop for short astronomy films.

Tara setup the normal Red lights on the signs and I quickly put the Ealing on the Moon with the moon filter. Donations light working. Glow in the dark bricks illuminated the path to the observatory well. The moon was about almost full so it was plenty bright.

The Ealing tracked about 70% and kept it on the moon the whole night. The Harlan Tracked poorly again all night, I couldn't keep it on Jupiter without manually repositioning it all night.

Only 7 guests showed up all night. It was very cold and mostly cloudy, but we were able to show off Jupiter and the moon in between cloud gaps.

Normal iPad demonstrations presented with Moon HD, Exoplanet, and Solar Walk.

Targets observed: Our moon, Jupiter and it's moons, but that was about it due to the weather.

Observatory secured. We left at 10:30 pm. Temp 46 degrees.

- James Hall

Sat Feb. 16, 2013 CoE Star Party

9709 — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:39:47 GMT

Sat Feb. 16, 2013

CoE Star Party

James Hall

6:15p-11:25p

Guests: 40

Arrived about 6:15, sky was clear and looking forward to the the night. Met up with Mark / Star*Man on the way in on the dirt road. He informed me that he had just finished doing his cleanup and enhancements to the observatory. I called the resort to let them know I was there and then opened the observatory. Noticed AAS members were also setting up out in the field (Larry with his DSLR and laptop and Greg with the 90mm scope and Android tablet)

Grounds excellent, EEO floors good. Forgot to test internet. Both scopes powered on and appeared to be working.

My hats off to Mark / Star*Man for such great work on the eye piece case. I've never seen it look so good. And the whole observatory just looked cleaner and more organized around the desk area. I did find what looked like a rubber cement tube under the ealing. But was able to quickly just put that away in a desk drawer.

I setup the normal Red lights on the signs and quickly put the Ealing on the Moon with the moon filter. Donations light working. Glow in the dark bricks illuminated the path to the observatory well. The moon was about half full so it was plenty bright.

The Ealing tracked about 90% and kept it on the moon most of the night. The Harlan Tracked poorly all night, I couldn't keep it on Jupiter. I'm not sure why it wouldn't move. I turned off the power and turned it back on again once during the night but it didn't help.

I couldn't find my apple TV so I didn't setup my usual iPad mirroring this time. But did entertain guests with many apps such as Moon HD to show them the lunar landing sites as they looked through the Ealing. I love the way that app lets you switch between different views of the moon so that it matches the reversed view in the eye piece perfectly. The other apps were a big hit as well (Star Chart for normal sky tracking, and ExoPlanet for showing where we are in the milky way and the closest exoplanets to us. Of course the normal sky tours were a big hit as well pointing out various constellations. Also showed them where the two brightest comets would be this year and when to look for them.

Targets observed: Our moon, Jupiter and it's moons, Andromeda Galaxy, Mizar double star, Orion Nebula, and a couple globular clusters.

Had a great night of outreach. Nice mix of children and adults. There was a couple of people (Bruce and Cindy) who showed up from the Ft. Worth astronomical society. They helped out with some sky pointing as well. All and all a great night.

Guest continued to arrive right after I shut down at 11:00 pm but they promised to return on another night.

Observatory secured. I left at 11:25 pm. Temp 46 degrees. AAS Members still on the field when I left but they said they were going to pack it in by midnight, so I did a soft lock on the gate as I left.

FYI - Mark / StarMan mentioned there was a log in the observatory but, it was so late, I didn't get a chance to go through it before I left.

- James Hall

Friday Feb. 8, 2013

9709 — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 15:00:03 GMT

Friday Feb. 8, 2013

CoE Star Party

Darin Koch

6:45p-11:00p

Guests: 17

Grounds excellent, EEO floors good. Internet not working. Both scopes working. Ealing tracked 100%. Donations light is working. Received at least $20 in donations. Glow in the dark bricks illuminated very nicely.

I arrived to find AAS member Eric Swanson, son Norman on the round field setup and camping overnight. I setup my 16" dob w/DSC and 25x100 binos/mount, my laptop to show guests further extended objects that would take longer in the observatory since there was no moon out. The sky was fair w/mostly clear at first w/some high clouds, then partly cloudy, with sucker holes, then cleared once again, then mostly cloudy by 11p. The seeing was avg, about a 5/10, no wind until 10:30p.

I had the Ealing on M42, Harlan Smith on Jupiter (3 moons), and in my scope and binos- we saw M31-32-110, M79, NGC 2392, 2261 (Hubble's Variable Nebula), M81-82, Rigel, Sirius, Pleaides, Beehive, NGC 869-883 (double double), M37, M38.

The guests and Eric and Norman view all the objects with me. A very fun night.

Left at 11p. temp 51º

COE Patron Viewing

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:57:58 GMT

COE Patron Viewing
Fri. Feb. 2, 2013
Jim Sheets
Guests: 9

Arrived at gate, 6:05pm. Mark's lub job was evident, as the gate and slide tube worked very well. Thanks Mark.
I called the office to let them know I had arrived. I opened the observatory and got both scopes up and running.
First guest arrived at 7:30, last guest left at 10:40.
Temp. was comfortable in the 60s, seeing average, transparency good, no clouds, light breeze 3-5mph.
Great views of Jupiter, Androm gxy, Orion neb, double cluster, alcore-mizor dbl dbl.
The Moon had set prior to sundown, stars seemed to pop out, good view of zodiacal light.

The Ealing scope tracked exceptionally well, right assention and dec controls slewed smoothly. Did someone work
on this scope? It operated the best that I have experienced.

Started closing and was gone by 11:15.

Foot Note:
The previous Saturday, Jan. 26 I covered for James due to his illness. I contacted COE to let them know that I was
coming even though the sky was overcast. Arrived at the office at about 6:10pm, spoke with Cindy Bower and we both
agreed that a "Fireside Astro Chat" would work for the evening. She scheduled 7:30 as a start time. I visited with 6 guests
until about 10:30. They seemed to like and appreciate the information that I had to offer.

I do not know if it is necessary to report fireside chats in the future. Someone please advise.

Jim Sheets
Host: Longhorn Cavern State Park
Astronomer: Canyon of the Eagles
Mailing address:
PO Box 356
Burnet, TX 78611
620.242.5143
N946JS