April exited in grand style on Arunah Hill. Barry Hervieux was the first on the hill, an was treated to an extraordinary site: A very large adult bald eagle lording over Arunah Hill.
By sunset, about a dozen of us were on the hill for the 5A's star party that Kevin Collins organized. The weather was perfect for star gazing: transparent dry skies, no wind, and temperatures slowly dropping from the fifties into the mid thirties.
Several large dobsonians went into action early, catching Saturn in the late twilight. As the sky darkened, M-3 filled up some wide-field eyepieces, a terrific globular cluster that resolves to the core. M-3 caused a bit of discussion of our high school Latin (2 weeks worth for me) as we tried different pronunciations of Canes Venatici. Once the sky fully darkened, galaxies dominated, usually in multiples. The "Leo Trio", the Whirlpool with the companion bridge revealed, M-84 & M-86 surrounded by tiny faint smudges caused lots of scurrying between scopes.
The Sombrero stood up to high magnification and had us all braving the heights of Kevin's ladder. Thanks Jonathan for "spotting". The rules were if you feel off the ladder you had to fall into the rocks, not Kevin's telescope.
The beautiful skies also revealed a dazzling bolide, exploding as it headed downward in the southeastern sky, racing out of Bootes. Someone refered to the -8 spectacle as a "Arcturide". A space station pass gave us all a chance to wave at "local" astronaut Cadie Coleman.
Before I left the hill, a view of the Beehive Cluster in Barry's little 5" rich field scope showed you don't always need big glass to see some wonderful site on a clear dark night on Arunah Hill.
And by the way... if you bet there would still be snow on Arunah Hill in May this year... you won! There isn't much left, it it may be gone by this afternoon, but there is a tiny patch of snow hanging on in a shady spot on our lower parking.
NOTE: Pictures to follow, once I get them emailed from Kevin and Barry.
-Ed
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