Log, May 13, 2005
44 people. Joe, Ernie, Keith and I showed up fairly early tonight. After four weeks of rainouts we were determined to have a night of it. We had a large number of people show up tonight. It started with a group of about a half dozen young adults who may have been visiting from one of the local universities. Some families showed up and then a troop of Girl Scouts with leaders and siblings. We were having a so night with a bright Moon and some light haze. We hoped to get some more advanced viewing in later but we concentrated on the Moon, Saturn with five of its moons and Jupiter with its four largest moons.While we looked at the Moon, the large crater Theophilus was right on the terminator. In the few minutes we were away from the Moon looking at Saturn with the young adults, the central ejecta mass suddenly became a bright point of light as the Sun dawned on the top of that rocky crag.An Iridium satellite passed over the Observatory while the Girl Scouts were out star hopping. It started as about a 3rd magnitude star and built in brightness to perhaps twice as bright as Jupiter before fading back to a 4th or 5th magnitude star and being lost in the haze. We also saw a bright meteor streak.About 10:15, when we were moving back towards Saturn to show it off to some latecomers, we were distressed to find it obscured by clouds. Within five to ten minutes, a few local clouds became a horizon to horizon opaque cloud deck. Oh well, at least we had some time.-Les Coleman
