Log, Jun 8, 2001
10 people signed in and 3 looked in and decided to go home immediately. Barry and I [fool]-hardily braved the gathering elements and opened up the Dome. Once everything was running (except the focuser which had drained its 9V battery and the UPS which was making an odd noise) we focused on the Moon. We even it saw it from time to time through the breaks in the clouds. The highlight of the evening was the "Fishhook Nebula" - a huge hook shaped nebula that must have been at least magnitude -10. Don't bother to look for a NGC or Messier number for this wonder. It was of course the Moon's nether light illuminating the obverse portions of some stratospheric nebulosity. Its a poor night when such a silver lining is worthy of note.Some high school students from North Kingstown stopped by in conjunction with astronomy classes taught there. We had a couple from Providence who have an 8" scope. They were looking for a possible place to use pursueing our mutual hobby. A family with some very bright kids stopped by after we had put the scope under wraps and closed the Dome just prior to the first shower. I am tempted to say that we chatted about this and that but I'm afraid a more precise explanation would say that they were the targets of a very loquatious local astronomy buff. Now who could that local astronomy buff possibly be? Do we know anyone [im]-famous for talking until your ears drop off?-Les Coleman
