University of Richmond Sky Watch

This past Thursday we held a sky watch event hosted by the University of Richmond Society of Physics Students. The event was well attended by students and professors who all appeared to enjoy themselves. This sky watch was a bit of a different venue for our club. To my knowledge we have not often held sky watches at colleges or universities. It was an exciting opportunity for us and we had a lot of fun with it.

My sincere thanks to those who brought telescopes and their expertise to the event, specifically, John Barnett, Jack Fox, Jeff Pike, John Raymond, Tim Streagle, Jerry Vaughn and Jerry Zaun. I understand that a few folks also tried to find the location, but were unable to do so. I thank everyone for taking time from their schedules to join us.

The evening started out a bit cool and eventually dropped into the mid-thirties - cold, but tolerable. The Society of Physics Students supplied some hot beverages to take the chill off.

It was a nice clear night and we provided views of the favorite objects that are visible this time of year. We had a variety of scopes including Dobs, refractors and, I think, one or more Maksutov-Cassegrains. I had the club's Stellacam video equipment coupled to my equatorial Newtonian and aimed at the Orion nebula for much of the time, which is a spectacular sight through the Stellacam, by the way. We had a great assortment of equipment and astronomers. Students of all disciplines came by to say hello and have a look and I think enjoyed the event. As always, the green pointing laser was an attention-getter.

Thanks again very much to those who attended.

Regards,

Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society