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