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The Astronomy Club of Augusta met on Saturday, November 2, 2013 at NMR-DSO for dark sky observation. Twelve 12 members and 3 guests attended, One 1 guest became a member, and another family joined on Monday. We were sorry Beth M. didn't make it.

The group started to arrive around 6:30PM and headed to the field to set up. As the cars lined up along the field, members assembled their telescopes, including Celestrons , Televue refractor, LX200, Orions, Meade, Dobsonian, Oberwerks and a variety of binoculars. . In the garage, Stan and Kenneth helped Lalit attach his digital camera to his scope with a makeshift device. There were plenty of onlookers and noisy grinding to remove the head of a steel screw. It worked!
Stan, Lalit and Dave P. helped Kenneth mount his GPS alignment device.

It was fairly clear and by 7 pm. Venus lit up the sky like an iridium flare that remained shining in place. Mark M. used his easel to draw the last of the Saggitarius teapot, tipped all the way over as if it were pouring hot steaming tea. As the night grew darker the Milky Way grew brighter, centered overhead. “Shooting stars” delighted us every few minutes, more so than other evenings. The Summer Triangle was still high in the western sky. The Pleiades in the east were very visible with the naked eye and even more spectacular when viewed through a scope or binoculars. As Venus and Saggitarius disappeared below the horizon, Capella appeared in the northeast, and we watched Aldebaran in Taurus and then Orions's belt rise in the east.

We quickly grew busy helping each other find objects. As a particular object was found we went from scope to scope to view it at different magnifications. We all learned a lot about the differences in scopes. Double stars, Alberio, Almaak, the nose of Dephinus, and double clusters were the hot items of the evening. We all located Andromeda and Lalit was able to capture an amazing picture of it. Dave helped Bruce get his scope focused in with a variety of eyepieces. Pat focused on NGC 6910 an open cluster in Cygnus as well as Algol, a bright star in the constellation Perseus. Other notable findings were: the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco and the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) in the constellation Sculptor.

Stan and Tedda provided refreshments, Lalit brought several Indian snacks. Thank you all.
It is time to order or renew subscriptions for the new year. Dot has a good deal for Astronomy Magazine, Tedda has a good offer for Sky & Telescope. Contact them. John received some great Astronomy Calendars, and has offered to give them as extra prizes at our holiday dinner on Dec.14 at Bobby's BBQ.

Back in the field, Stan and Ervin worked on aligning Kenneth's scope, Lalit came to help as well. The evening grew chilly and most of the group reluctantly disbursed around 10:30 pm as Altair disappeared below the horizon. Dave P. stayed to talk. After solving numerous problems with alignment and loose parts, Stan and Lalit finally got Kenneth's scope aligned and ready for use by about 12:30AM.

Unusually, Kenneth was not the last to leave, due to a early rise and a heavy day of Tai Chi. Stan finished a short video of Lalit's new skills and gave him a copy before he left around 1:30AM, just before the time change!

– it was a good night for all.

Respectfully submitted, Dot Valentine