Star Party Reports
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 9/13/2025
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.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/31/2025
Ten HAL members showed up for a very pleasant evening of observing and imaging at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of August 30th. The first-quarter moon was out until a little after 11:00. The temperature started out in the low 70s and dipped to the high 50s by 1:00 AM. Seeing and transparency seemed to be above average.
David and Dave were both imaging the North America Nebula in Cygnus with Seestar S50s in equatorial mode. Todd imaged the Western Veil Nebula with his Redcat 91mm refractor, while Mike D. imaged a 9-tile mosaic of the entire Cygnus Loop with his 122 mm refractor.
Mike P. imaged the Baby Nebula with his 8″ reflector. I’m not familiar with this object, and a Google search didn’t help. There is something called the Baby Eagle nebula, but that’s in Taurus and wasn’t visible. I might have misheard his target. He later imaged the more well-known Iris Nebula in Cepheus. Shrikant imaged the full-grown Eagle Nebula in Serpens with his 72mm Astro Tech refractor. Richard imaged some small nebulae near M8, the Lagoon Nebula, with his 130mm refractor.
Lee and Marian got in some visual observations with their Celestron Nexstar 6 SE, but the scope lost its alignment at some point. Rich was also having some issues with getting a good alignment with his Stellarvue 70 mm refractor.
I observed 7 double stars in Hercules and one in Corona Borealis with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob while waiting for the moon to set. I then observed globular clusters M13 and M92 in Hercules and planetary nebulae NGC 6572 in Ophiuchus and M27 in Vulpecula. I was pleased to share the view of M13 with Marian and double star Delta Herculis with Rich when they stopped by at different points in the night. I added two hours of data to an ongoing mosaic of the Heart and Fish Head nebulae in Cassiopeia with my Vespera II.
I started packing up around midnight and everyone else left over the next half hour. I locked up HALO and the park gate and left at 1:00.
Ernie Morse
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/23/2025
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
Public Star Watch at Howard County Conservancy 8/29/2025
August 29 / 8 p.m./ $5 per car
Gather to watch the skies over the Conservancy with members of the Howard Astronomical League. With their telescopes and practiced eyes, experts will point out features of the summer night sky, including galaxies, double stars such as Albireo, planets and the moon.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/02/2025
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/21/2025
Eight HAL members enjoyed clear skies and pleasant weather at Alpha Ridge on the night of July 21-22. Wildfire smoke reduced transparency, but it wasn’t too bad.
Mike imaged M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major, with his Svbony Sv550 122mm refractor.
Gary didn’t have a target in mind for his Celestron Origin smart telescope at the start of the night, and I didn’t get a chance to see what he had decided to image before he left.
Jeff set up a Celstron Starsense AutoAlign camera on his 4-inch refractor for the first time. It appeared to successfully align, but he wasn’t able to find any objects. However, he was happy to get out under the skies to socialize with his fellow club members and he did get to see the globular cluster M5 through my telescope when I gave him a quick demo of the Starsense Explorer app on my phone guiding the pointing change from the double star Izar in Bootes over to M5 in Serpens Caput.
Lee and Marian set up Marian’s new Celestron Nexstar 6″ SE SCT. After some initial alignment issues, they got it working well and verified the performance by observing several bright stars.
Jose imaged the supernova remnant Crescent Nebula (Caldwell 27) in Cygnus with Apertura Carbonstar 150 Newtonian reflector and Luis imaged the Cocoon Nebula (Caldwell 19, also in Cygnus) with a new Astro-Tech 72mm refractor.
I observed several double stars, including Izar, Rasalgethi, Alkalurops, Jabbah, Mizar & Alcor, xi Scorpii (which pairs with nearby Struve 1999 to make a nice double-double) with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob. I also observed the globular cluster M5 and open clusters M11 (Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum) and M25 in Sagittarius, and M24 (Sagittarius star cloud).
I purchased a new sky quality meter, as the one that I had seemed to be underestimating the darkness of the sky at Alpha Ridge. However, when I measured with both meters at 11:45 PM, the new one gave a result of 19.26 mag/as^2, while the old one reported a slightly darker 19.40 mag/as^2.
Jose, Luis and I were the last ones there and we packed up shortly after 1:00. I locked up HALO and locked the gate behind us when we left the park at 1:25.
Ernie Morse
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/05/2025
After several rainy public star parties, our July star party had clear skies and was well attended! I counted 12-15 telescopes, and approximately 200 people joined us throughout the evening. Since sunset was not until after 8:36 pm, many HAL members focused on the Moon as their first target as we waited for the skies to darken. Some members arrived early enough to observe the Sun in hydrogen-alpha. Other targets include Mars, Caldwell 20 (The North American Nebula), M57 (The Ring Nebula), and other summer-time objects. The observatory, as usual, was packed with people throughout the night. Arjun was present with the solar system display table. The activities tent also included a solar sail activity for families. This public star party featured crew members from MPT (Maryland Public Television), who interviewed several members of HAL about the club and its role in the community.
Thank you to everyone who joined us tonight!
-Krystal
Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Weuq1L9MVsYevuhE6
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/04/2025
It was a surprisingly cool night on Friday for the HAL impromptu star
party — several people, including me, wished they had brought a light
jacket as the temperature dropped to about 64 degF by midnight. Winds
were nonexistent and there was more moisture than predicted, but
conditions were not bad at all and dew didn’t stop anyone from
observing. The biggest issues were the nine day old Moon and wildfire
smoke, creating unusually bright skies even for Alpha Ridge Park. As a
testament to the impact of the smoke, the Moon had a yellowish tint all
night. My Sky Quality meter registered 19.32 mag/square-arcsec at about
11:45pm (about an hour after the end of astronomical twilight) with the
Moon low in the southwest, and it dropped to 19.58 mag/square-arcsec by
1:15am, a little before Moonset. After the Moon had set, it reported
19.71 mag/square-arcsec. This is still brighter than usual, and
probably reflects the light pollution scattering from the smoke. While
the transparency was less than optimal, the seeing was really good, and
was steady all night. My stars were unusually small in the images, and
my guiding was as good as I’ve ever experienced.
Six HAL members attended the party, with four doing visual observing and
two doing imaging. Jamie and his wife observed the Moon and other
objects with a small scope on an alta-azimuth mount, and Robert observed
the Moon with a 130mm Newtonian. Ernie observed double stars in Ursa
Major, Canes Venatici, Coma Bernices, and some other areas with his
8-inch Newtonian. Mike imaged the North America Nebula in Cygnus with
his 80mm Svbony refractor, while I added three more hours of LRGB data
on M13 (Hercules Cluster) with my 8-inch RC.
It was nice to see all the members who came out for the night; hopefully
we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/21/2025
Saturday night’s Members-Only Star Party at Alpha Ridge Park was a great
success. Approximately 20 club members, several of them at their first
HAL star party, ventured out with their scopes to enjoy the night sky.
High, and not so thin, clouds were present at sunset and were initially
rather discouraging, but they cleared out by about 11:15pm and the rest
of the night was free of clouds. Temperatures were pleasantly warm, and
the humidity was not too bad. As is typical with hot, hazy, and humid
conditions, the transparency was not great but the seeing was better
than average. Many people were doing visual observations of a wide
variety of objects, with double stars, clusters, and nebulae being the
most common. Scopes ranged from 70mm refractors to an 11-inch SCT.
There was at least one Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA) scope
doing some imaging, and at least three other members imaging with more
traditional rigs. I spent my night imaging the globular cluster M13 in
Hercules, and the attached image shows the result of three hours of
exposure time. Observing continued until about 2:45am.
After closing the park gate at 3:45am, I saw the Moon near a bright
planet that I concluded was Jupiter — it had a yellowish tint and
wasn’t as bright as Venus, which also shows as a brilliant white color.
However, upon arriving home I discovered that the planet was, indeed,
Venus, so the color and the dimness was likely due to the presence of
high-altitude wildfire smoke.
It was nice to see so many new members come out for the night, as well
as the old hands who were there. Hopefully we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/26/2025
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/24/2025
About 20 HAL members, new and old, were at Alpha Ridge Park for Saturday night’s Members-Only Star Party; an accurate count was not obtained, but it was pleasantly crowded.
The weather was cool with calm winds and moderate humidity. There were some clouds around at sunset which lasted until about 11:00pm, but they were scattered and didn’t stop people from observing. The night was nice after the clouds cleared, with good transparency but below average seeing. My best Sky Quality Meter reading was 18.9 magnitudes/square-arcsec.
We had the usual mix of imaging and visual observing using scopes ranging from Seestar S50 systems to a 14-inch SCT. Visual observers viewed a variety of targets such as double stars, globular clusters, planetary nebulae, and galaxies. The imagers were mostly capturing galaxies — M101, M94, and M60 were among the galaxies targeted.
I closed the park gate at 3:45am after doing some engineering work after more clouds rolled in.
Thanks to all the members who came out; it was nice to see and converse with longtime members and newcomers. Hopefully we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/19/2025
Seven HAL members enjoyed a very pleasant evening of observing at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of May 19/20.
Temperature was about 70 degrees at sunset and it was still 60 at midnight. It was somewhat breezy, but not too bad. Seeing and transparency both seemed to be below average to poor.
Jason used a 4-inch Meade Maksutov-Cassegrain to observe some double stars while imaging M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) with a Seestar S50. Steve started the evening with some binocular observing and also imaged M104 with his Seestar. Bill was getting first light on his new Celestron 8-inch MCT, but he left before I was able to ask him how that went. Alex observered several deep-sky objects with his 10″ Dob, including M13 (Great Hercules Globular Cluster), M57 (Ring Nebula) and M44 (Beehive open cluster). He imaged the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565, Caldwell 38) with his Seestar S50. Rich was present for the third consecutive night and got in some testing of his mount. Ken imaged M82 (Cigar Galaxy) with his colossal Meade 14″ and also imaged M104 (a popular target) with a new Carbonstar 6-inch Newtonian. I observered several pretty double stars, globular clusters M13, M92 and M5, and M104 (everyone else was doing it, didn’t want to be left out) with my 8-inch Dob and added two hours to my continuing mosaic of Markarian’s Chain + M87 with my Vaonis Vespera II. Apologies to anyone for whom I may have gotten the details incorrect.
Everything went smoothly, except for some chaos early on arising from an accidental connection to the wrong Seestar. So many Seestars in the area, it was almost bound to happen!
Everyone finished observing by midnight. I locked the park gates at 12:30 AM.
Thanks to all who attended. I’m very happy that the weather forecasting failures of the previous two nights did not continue. Hope to see everyone out there again soon.
Ernie