Post by bsimon615 on Nov 11, 2021 17:14:34 GMT -6
Well another year has come and gone and #39 is now in the books.
We did very well with the weather in spite of the fact that we did have cloudy skies on Wednesday and Thursday. We did have very very good skies to observe under on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Additionally we had some (who had electrical work to do for White Horse) come a day early and skies were clear on Monday night and we had some arrive late but they got the ok to extend their stay thru Sunday night so they did have two very good nights. I believe everyone was happy with the skies we had.
Our official registration was 44 which was good and the two centers of activity - the Arena Field and the "Alabama RV Park" were virtually full. This year we did have some accidental excitement in the form of a smoldering hay bail fire which smoldered and smoldered. Fortunately with the help of the Alabama Firefighters Auxiliary Reserve Trainees (AFART) the smoldering remains of 9 rotten hay bails were eventually raked into submission. We applaud them for their efforts, and the video that was shot is amusing!
We were treated to several passages of the Hubble Space Telescope, a few bright meteors (Southern Taurids) as well as the usual deep sky objects and the planets which were well placed.
I also want to thank our speakers for the week - John Martinez, David Kern and Philip Wollenberg. Their programs were well attended. The door prize giveaways on each day were fun. In addition to the prizes that we purchased we did have a few donations, The 4" equatorial refractor from ExploreScientific was won by Katlyn Hall (9 years old) and the Televue Barlow was won by Bryan Shirkey. In addition we had a nice set of Celestron eyepieces and filters in a case which were won by William Hall (12 years old). All of these winners are from Alabama and there were additional prizes won by the Alabama group - what's up with that?
Question - one of the prizes I brought from home was a complete unopened set of Cosmos on DVD (the Carl Sagan version). I do not remember who won it or if I even had it to give away. Does anyone remember? It may be in Carol's office. I will have to check if no one can remember.
The dates for Big 40 next year will be October 18th to the 23rd.
See the photos that I will attach to this post and probably a few more, in no particular order.
Click on each photo to see larger.
Thanks to all who attended!
Barry
We did very well with the weather in spite of the fact that we did have cloudy skies on Wednesday and Thursday. We did have very very good skies to observe under on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Additionally we had some (who had electrical work to do for White Horse) come a day early and skies were clear on Monday night and we had some arrive late but they got the ok to extend their stay thru Sunday night so they did have two very good nights. I believe everyone was happy with the skies we had.
Our official registration was 44 which was good and the two centers of activity - the Arena Field and the "Alabama RV Park" were virtually full. This year we did have some accidental excitement in the form of a smoldering hay bail fire which smoldered and smoldered. Fortunately with the help of the Alabama Firefighters Auxiliary Reserve Trainees (AFART) the smoldering remains of 9 rotten hay bails were eventually raked into submission. We applaud them for their efforts, and the video that was shot is amusing!
We were treated to several passages of the Hubble Space Telescope, a few bright meteors (Southern Taurids) as well as the usual deep sky objects and the planets which were well placed.
I also want to thank our speakers for the week - John Martinez, David Kern and Philip Wollenberg. Their programs were well attended. The door prize giveaways on each day were fun. In addition to the prizes that we purchased we did have a few donations, The 4" equatorial refractor from ExploreScientific was won by Katlyn Hall (9 years old) and the Televue Barlow was won by Bryan Shirkey. In addition we had a nice set of Celestron eyepieces and filters in a case which were won by William Hall (12 years old). All of these winners are from Alabama and there were additional prizes won by the Alabama group - what's up with that?
Question - one of the prizes I brought from home was a complete unopened set of Cosmos on DVD (the Carl Sagan version). I do not remember who won it or if I even had it to give away. Does anyone remember? It may be in Carol's office. I will have to check if no one can remember.
The dates for Big 40 next year will be October 18th to the 23rd.
See the photos that I will attach to this post and probably a few more, in no particular order.
Click on each photo to see larger.
Thanks to all who attended!
Barry
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