At least 17 HAL members enjoyed a wonderful night under the stars at the HAL members start party at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of August 23/24.  Skies were clear all night, with comfortable temperatures in the low 70s and a 5-10 mph breeze.

Several people were making visual observations.  New member Colin was scanning the skies with his arm-mounted 10 x 70 binoculars.  Phil was using a 5-inch refractor and an image intensifier and also did some imaging with the same scope.  He showed me an impressive view of the Eagle Nebula (M16) with the scope + intensifier. and wowed people with nebula views through the intensifier just on its own, without a telescope.  I used my trusty 8″ Dob to view M6 (Butterfly Cluster), M11 (Wild Duck Cluster), Caldwell 22 (Blue Snowball Nebula) and several double stars.  Jeff observed the globular cluster M10 with his gargantuan 16″ Dob.  Lee and Marian worked with their Nexstar 6 SE but had some difficulty getting it aligned.

EAA scopes were also deployed.  Gary was imaging the Crescent Nebula with his Celestron Origin.  Rich was imaging the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) with his Seestar S50 in equatorial mode for the first time.  Dave was also imaging M101 and the Wizard Nebula with an S50.  There was one other person imaging M31 with an S50, but I have to apologize for not getting his name.  I imaged M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) and the Heart Nebula (NGC 896 and IC 1805) with my Vespera II.

Another group of people were collecting data with traditional imaging setups.  Richard was imaging the Swan Nebula (M17).  Jose was working on the Wizard Nebula with his 8″ Apertura Carbonstar Newtonian.  Mike started out with the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and then was going to try for the most obscure target of the night, HIP 99377, a nebula in Cygnus.  Mike and Brian were imaging the Veil Nebula with a Svbony 122m refractor.

I started packing up around 11:30, but a few people wanted to stay later, so I transferred keyholder responsibility over to Jose and left at 12:30.

Ernie Morse