Thank you, Minnesota Astronomical Society!

Dear MAS,

On behalf of the Minnesota Rovers, I'd like to thank the MAS and the Onan staff who came out on Friday night to give us a truly great presentation.

Thanks to Ron Schmit for running the show and for handling all the questions from the approx. 30 people who came. We also want to thank Ashutosh and Dave O. for working the telescopes and computers (and for fixing the balky fork-drive on the Celestron).

The night started out with mostly cloudy skies at sunset. Ron gave an excellent slide show, covering pretty much everything from the solar system to deep-sky to cosmology. People in the group were still talking about the level of his knowledge (and his humor!) the next day. By around 10pm the sky cleared and we were able to use the 16" Meade and 14" Celestron to view Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and M's 8, 13, 16, 17, 27, 31, 57 and 81. Ron also covered the constellations, and we viewed the international space station (with the shuttle Endeavor docked to it) as it passed by around 9:30pm. We also spotted some Perseids zipping through the sky. A bunch of people just laid out in front of the observatory and watched the Milky Way pass overhead.

Everyone came away very impressed by the level of expertise of the volunteer staff. Some of the Rovers had never been to an observatory.
Several people asked about the telescopes and how the dome worked...and a lot of people couldn't believe that this was run by non-professionals!

The viewing session ended around 12:30am. We returned to our campsites at Baylor and got in a little hang-out time under a dark sky before the wind shifted. We scurried into our tents a few minutes before the driving rain and lightning/thunder started. It didn't end till around 4:30am. We probably got 2 inches or so of rain out there. Fortunately, there was no damage to any of our gear and nobody floated away... Just a couple of leaky tents for the approximately 20 people who camped that night...but it was scary for a time with the lightning.

On Saturday night, the sky cleared at twilight. I set up my 16" at the campground and we did some more viewing (under some turbulent air) till about midnight. About 15 people stayed over by the campfire, while about 20 of us hung out on the hill and watched for Perseids till around 1:30am.

All-in-all, I think it was a great trip…I wouldn't be surprised if the MAS gets a few new members out of this weekend.

Thanks again.

Suresh Sreenivasan
MN Rover since 2002
MAS since 2003