Last December, I was contacted by the local library to help them put on a star party. After looking at several dates, it was decided we would do it July 13. First, that was only a week before the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, and the Moon would be in a gibbous phase, allowing folks to see every Apollo landing site. Second, Jupiter and Saturn would be visible in the sky, which would be a nice bonus.
The library wanted to expand the star party beyond just having telescopes set up, so I presented several possible supplemental activities we could do. Of those, they chose to have a telescope workshop, a photo-op booth, a hands-on robotic arm demonstration, a build-your-own-planisphere craft table, and a 3D model of the Big Dipper to show how our night sky would look from different perspectives.
The day began with partly cloudy skies and indeed, that's what the forecast called for all evening. However, Hurricane Barry was due to hit the coast of Louisiana that morning and could make things interesting.
The telescope workshop was scheduled for 8pm, so my wife Jul and I arrived about 7:15pm to set up the activities. The library staff were already there and waiting to assist us. Unfortunately, the skies were clouding up. Clearly, Barry didn't want to be left out and invited himself to the party.
I invited the local astronomy club to help out with the star party, and club member Warren arrived shortly after I did. Ginger arrived about this time as well, so we finished setting up the indoor activities and went back outside to set up our telescopes, in the hopes things would clear up. However, we saw rain off in the distance so decided to leave our scopes in the car for the time being and see what happened.
A good decision, as it turned out. As we walked back inside, it began to sprinkle a bit. Tim arrived, completing our complement of amateur astronomers. Also around this time, a family pulled up bringing the daughter's telescope and wanting advice on how to use it properly.
We had her set it up under an awning to prevent it from getting wet. As soon as we moved under the awning, the rain started pouring. It looks like one of Barry's cloud bands found us at last.
The telescope was actually a nice beginner scope - a Celestron 5-inch Mak-Cass. Warren had recently purchased a Celestron EdgeHD 11, so I figured he would be a better person to assist them.
While he was still teaching her the ropes, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. We looked at the sky. It seemed this band of rain had gone past us and there was some moderately clear sky before the next one came around. Tim and I found dry spots and set up our telescopes. Warren joined us as soon as he had finished helping the girl.
By this time, the Moon had moved into a clear part of the sky. Just in time, as sunset had passed and it was beginning to get dark. Looking carefully, I was just able to spot Jupiter nearby as well. Maybe we could pull this off after all!
Before we even finished setting up the telescopes, folks began arriving. There were still plenty of thin clouds, but Jupiter and the Moon were punching through them without much difficulty.
For most of the evening, Tim, Warren and I just moved our scopes back and forth between the Moon and Jupiter. Tim brought his homemade 8" ball reflector, Warren brought his 10" Dob, and I brought my 12" Dob and attached my phone to the eyepiece to allow several to see the view at once. The library also provided a couple pairs of Celestron 20x80 binoculars, which were perfect for wide shots of the Moon and for seeing the Galilean moons of Jupiter.
As the night wore on, Saturn came up over the trees. This excited a lot of people, who were getting a little tired of looking at cloud bands on Jupiter and closeups of lunar craters. Even though it was still low in the sky and the lousy seeing made it difficult to get a good focus, everyone was wowed by being able to see the rings.
One person was particularly excited about getting to see Saturn through a telescope and pulled out his phone to vlog about it and to show his viewers what he was seeing. He exclaimed, "This is the highlight of my night!"
Inside the library lobby, things were going just as well. A steady stream of visitors enjoyed playing with the robotic arm, making planispheres, and getting some free NASA stickers and other goodies.
Finally, the crowd began waning down to just a few stragglers and we ended the event at 11pm. All told, over 100 people came to enjoy the star party. The Facebook event page had over 400 showing interest, but considering the rainy start to the evening, I think the turnout was great.