Sidewalk Astronomy February 2018

[Jonathan Sabin]

I am pleased to announce our next Sidewalk Astronomy event!

Weather permitting, on Saturday, February 24, 2018 starting at 6:30 p.m. and continuing until at least 10:00 p.m., we will set up our high-quality telescopes for your viewing pleasure in the parking lot at the southeast corner of Sarasota's Celery Fields Park.

Home to the Sarasota Audubon Society, located at 6893 Palmer Boulevard, Sarasota, ample public parking will be available just west of the Nature Center building. The telescopes will be set up in the parking lot on the east side of the Nature Center. (There will be no telescopes set up at the top of the hill).
 
Observing highlights during the evening include the first quarter moon and the distant planet Uranus as well as other deep-sky wonders that will be visible through the member's telescopes.

As always, the event is free of charge and is open to people of all ages.

[Jonathan Sabin]

WEATHER UPDATE FOR TONIGHT'S EVENT...


Although tonight's event at the Celery Fields certainly isn't going to be the clearest night of observing we've ever enjoyed, the current forecast looks like we may get to take advantage of a handful of holes in the clouds and at least get some observing in.

As I write this, it's a bit after 3:00 p.m. and it's totally overcast - - but every report I've seen seems to be in agreement that the cloud cover should start to break up a bit between 4:00 and 5:00.

So we are "go" for tonight... but you may want to dial your expectations down from a "10" to about a "5!"

See you under the stars and clouds!

[Jonathan Sabin]

HOLY MOLEY! 

What a turn out for last night's Sidewalk event!

I counted 22 telescopes early in the evening, and I'm sure I probably missed one or two from my vantage point...plus a couple of scopes arrived after that. So we had two dozen-plus pieces of equipment out there for the public to enjoy.

Unfortunately, the forecasts I had relied upon ended up being pretty close to accurate, so we had an on-again-off-again relationship with the night sky: For most of the night it was... "check out the moon for two minutes, stand around for another three, waiting for the cloud to pass. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

On the upside though, the seeing (when we COULD see!) was quite good, and there was virtually no dew fogging up our glass.

Even the rain wasn't all that bad. I think that passing sprinkle lasted all of 90 seconds.  ;-) Plus it served as a good reminder to always have some kind of cover (blanket/sheet/tarp) on hand in your vehicle to quickly drape over your scope in the event of a sneak-up shower.

All in all, I'd say the night was a success. And thank you to all of you who came out!

[Ed McDonough]

Here's a photo I took to capture the spirit of the evening. Quite an array of telescopes!!! Don't let that clear sky fool you...it didn't last very long.

[Andy Pyatt]

Nice photo Ed, I didn’t remember it being that clear at all.  BTW, nice capture of my “action” pose!