Free Outing Club < Reports < TripReport20070505AstronomyTrip

-- DonBarry - 09 May 2007

Leaders	DonBarry
Destination	Hartung Boothroyd Observatory
Author	DonBarry
Activity	Nature
Start date	2007-05-05
Number of days	1
How many Participants	14
Report	Earlier in the semester we had a "bright time" (meaning the moon was up) trip to this observatory, which is not normally open to the public. This time the moon was out of the sky, at least until after we left. We arrived just at sunset, having left at 8pm. The skies were pitch black, though the Milky Way was oriented more or less along the horizon. We'll have to come back mid-summer to see it at a better vantage. But many other things were well placed! We started observations after waiting out twilight with a tour by looking at Saturn and counting quite a few of its moons. A series of galaxies came next (M66, M104) and then we looked at a globular cluster (M3) and a dying star (the planetary nebula M97). The last object of the night was the Whirlpool galaxy (M51).
Picture Link	http://freeoutingclubs.org/gallery/v/Trip+to+Observatory/

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