Last night’s opening was quite cold and started with poor visibility, but the night ended with several highlights, including clear views of a brilliant thin crescent Moon just after sunset, Saturn, M51, and Gemini-contained NGC members 2371-2 (a good example of how the new O III filter enhances overall detail in some objects) and 2392 (the Eskimo Nebula). Tonight is expected to be overcast in Tully but tomorrow night looks promising for clear (if not entirely transparent) skies. Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for an official update. NGC 2371-2. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2371-2 for more info.
Observing Announcements
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Greetings fellow astrophile! New Moon and Clear Skies. This rare combination is not to be ignored! The Clear Sky Clock indicates clear skies well past midnight and all forecasts say overcast skies and/or rain for the Friday Public Viewing Session, so several members will be opening the observatory and taking advantage tonight. Saturn will likely be the focus of several scopes tonight, but the last viewing session proved to be eventful for both shooting stars and galaxies. It will be quite cool tonight, so do bring another layer just in case. Darling Hill will be open by 8.
CNY skies are predicted to be clear until (at least) midnight and the clear skies all day have hopefully dried the observatory grounds. The observatory is set to open around 7:30 p.m. tonight (30 April). It is predicted to get down to the low 40’s/high 30’s tonight, so do dress accordingly!
The remarkable CNY overcasts from this past week are predicted to give way to clear skies tomorrow night. In the meantime, Darling Hill is overcast and still quite wet from the rain this past week, so we will try for observing tomorrow night instead. Stay tuned tomorrow (around 5 p.m.) for further updates.