Jim’s Astronomy Blog

I assisted with a private star party last night for a client at the Broadmoor.

There were a couple of hundred people from all around the globe here for a company team-building.

Got to meet people from Madrid, Japan, Chile, Belgium and other places.  Lot of nice folks.

We were part of the “entertainment” for their social gathering.  Before their dinner we were looking at some terrestial objects since it was still too light out for anything in the sky.

After their dinner and awards and speeches they started to head back out to the terrace.  We were at the Cheyenne Mountain Lodge which is a gathering hall located on the Broadmoor’s main golf course.  The lodge sits on the side of the mountain and the terrace was expansive and open with an awesome view of the city unless you have a telescope and then it’s just too much light pollution.

Overall it was not too bad.  Saturn was visible most of the time with the occasional cloud patch blocking our view.  We hopped around the sky finding what we could around the clouds.  Between the smoke from the massive fireplace on the terrace and all the cigars being smoked and of course the clouds, things went rather well.

We were well received and there were quite a few genuinely interested people that asked all sorts of questions about our equipment and celestial objects.

I particularly enjoyed my conversation with two guys from Madrid.  We were comparing our respective sky views as well as comparing constellation names and history from our respective cultures.

My next star party is for my daughter’s 5th grade class at Camp Elim tomorrow.  Right now the forecast is not looking promising but alas, I am ever the eternal optimist…with my fingers crossed of course.

Until then…clear skies.

I organized a star party for my son’s high school astronomy class.

Turnout was actually quite good.  As far as scopes go, I had three members from our club show up to help which was great!

We had about 20 folks there, mostly students.

Saturn was up and clear and as always, quite beautiful.  There were wisps of clouds, especially on the horizon but all-in-all viewing was pretty good.

As the night wore on we were able to pick up some clusters and galaxies.

We had setup next to the high school student parking lot.  Besides the lot lights we had an unobstructed view to the Sky Sox stadium lights. 

The astro teacher now wants this to be a “permanent” part of his cirriculum at which I said “Oh Yeah!”.  We’ll just need to find a better place…or get the lot lights turned off…and make sure the Sky Sox aren’t playing on our scheduled night!

Thanx to BobV, ErikkH and JimB for their scopes!