Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 9/13/2025 – Howard Astronomical League

I’m happy to report that HAL’s September public star party last night was very successful! We had at least a dozen scopes set up and hundreds of visitors. The clouds held off until 11:00 PM so we had beautiful clear skies for the entire event. I personally showed visitors the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023), the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), the Swan Nebula (Messier 17), the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31), Saturn, the Veil Nebula (NGC 6960), the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101), the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16), the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27), the Ring Nebula (Messier 57) and the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (Messier 13). I was too busy showing the sky to visitors to be able to walk around and see what everyone else was doing but I suspect it was a lot of the same targets. As the clouds were coming in we ended the event at 11:00 PM and I locked up the park at 11:30 PM.

I want to thank Dale and Chris who operated our observatory which was as always the star of the show, Bob and Arjun who set up their educational table and taught visitors all night, and Krystal who set up her activities tent to the delight of scores of children. I also want to thank every HAL member who came out and set up telescopes to share the wonders of the night sky with our visitors! Some photos from the event are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6cABJMnZr1QV3akR6 .

Our next scheduled HAL event is a members-only star party next Saturday night. Our next public star party will be on October 4. I hope to see many of you out there for both!

Clear skies,

David

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David Stein

HAL Events Coordinator