Log, Jun 18, 1999
38 people. The yearly convention of RV vehicles at Ninigret Park was in full swing. When a few RV campers came down to FDO, we sent them away until they rounded up lots more folks. Sure enough, just as dusk a large group of the campers moved down the road to join other visitors.We waited throughout the long twilight that accompanies the days near the Summer Solstice. The Moon and Venus were visible before the Sun was fully down. Mars, Vega, Arcturus, Spica, Deneb and Altair shortly followed. Ten minutes after they appeared, the clear skies showed all the evening's major constellations. A sighting of the new International Space Station was greeted with enthusiasm by everyone. We watched it until it dropped into the Earth's shadow near the Eastern horizon.Children (and some adults) had a great time finding the Moon, Venus and Mars in my AstroScan 2000 telescope. There is nothing quite so exciting as seeing something that you located in the telescope. Later in the evening, the AstroScan presented fine wide angle views of the Milky Way in and around Sagittarius. Joe's Meade ETX-90 and Christian's TeleVue 101 were pressed into service displaying many of the items that were discussed in the star hopping party. As always our StarFire 7" presented fine views of objects which required more light grasp or magnification than the other telescopes.As the Moon set shortly after midnight, the sky darkened noticeably. Fine views of the Milky Way rewarded the few folks who stayed that late to see the night sky.-Les Coleman
