ASCC MIRROR

Largest ASCC Group Ever at Yosemite
by Arthur Babcock, President, ASCC

A large contingent of ASCC folks, including some first-timers such as myself, journeyed to Glacier Point at Yosemite National Park on the weekend of July 24 and 25 to share the stars and our telescopes with the public. We were welcomed by great weather and enthusiastic crowds.

On Friday night, there was a bit of cloudiness at times, like an aftertaste of the El Niño season, although it did not interfere with observations very much. Saturday night, however, was at least a tie for the best observing conditions I have ever experienced. With the Milky Way overhead, there was so much starlight that one could see quite well at ground level. One tourist from Sweden asked, "Is this as dark as it gets here?"

A look through the telescope was sufficient to demonstrate the quality of conditions. I used my neighbor's 20" Newtonian at 600x to observe the central star of the Ring Nebula, something I had managed to do before only on the MIRA 36". The seeing was very good, too: the stars in globular clusters made hard specks of light like tiny diamonds.

In Bridalveil Campground, where we camped free in exchange for our public service star party work, we enjoyed a really first-rate potluck dinner on Saturday night, and swapped tales with the other two clubs attending the event, the Central Valley Astronomers and the M-Star group from Merced. The campground was a wee bit crowded due to some problems with the reservation system, but we were reasonably comfortable.

Present from ASCC were Arthur Babcock, Cary Colwell, Paul and Ileene Franks, Vince Halter, Rich Hamilton, Tom Pelikan, Bill Swanson, Monica Treadway and Bob Trubell, along with several family members.

Club News by Monica Treadway

Our club is growing! We welcome Zena Zeres, Craig Wandke and The Orion Telescope Company in Watsonville. I am pleased to say that I have had inquires from Ms Lisa vander Sluis and Jim Schreiber which were invited to our next meeting to hear Dr. Bruce Weaver,

Editors Corner
MIRA is interested in testing some 2" eyepieces on thier 36 inch telescope. Dr. Weaver wants to find out which type would be best to use for thier star parties. Drs Whitney Shane and Anna Tores Dodgen were not happy with the one we now have at OOS. So! If you have a HIGH quality wide angle lens and are going to be at the next MIRA OOS star party, bring it along so it can be evaluated. We need something for star clusters and Nebulae and one for small objects. Some comments were made that it was easier to see a few objects is some amateur scopes at the last star party.

If anyone knows of any speakers for our meetings please let the Pres. know. Or, better yet you think up a topic and give a talk yourself.

Keep looking up and we’ll see you at the next meeting.