Posted on behalf of Site Coordinator Terry Cabell
Event Sat September 15th 7pm-11pm
If you haven’t been to Sky Meadows before, it has the best skies of any of our Northern Virginia sites, especially to the south–so our spring/summer favorites are clearly in view. Add in indoor plumbing, and you have the makings of a perfect site.
In the past public nights, even with the mediocre forecast, there were over 100 public attendees. I expect an even highter turnout this weekend if the weather holds. Unlike our other public sites, there are a lot of campers, boy scouts, etc who spend overnights there, so we have a built in audience for the greatest show ever.
Before dark, NASA’s JPL will put on an interesting PowerPoint presentation, and those of you with new equipment can get help from other members there. Even if you only bring yourself and your knowledge of the night sky, you can wow the public, and a good pair of binocs goes a long way, too. But the views through our scopes really wow them, as previous volunteers can attest. So if you’ve got the time and a scope, come right along.
Members who bring heavy equipment like large dobs may pull up onto the field to unload, park their cars outside the split rail fence, and we’ll make arrangements to get their cars back onto the field to load up once the public portion of the evening is over. We just want to make sure we don’t run over anyone lying out on the field enjoying the night sky.
And volunteers who bring scopes can stay all night if they wish. Sky Meadows NOVAC member observing privileges continue through this Sunday night.
Please consider joining us on Saturday. I promise to bring cookies, too, although this time I think they’ll be chocolate chip.
I hope to see you there.
Clear Skies,
Terry
