[Peyton-observing] Public Observing August 14

[Alex R. Howe]

Hi all,

We had clear weather for observing last night and a good turnout of about 20 people. The stadium lights were off. However, Public Safety did not unlock the doors of the building, again.
As expected, the telescope had to be aligned manually. We started by looking at the Moon before it set, followed by Albireo, then a number of deep sky objects. Trees, moonlight, and haze hampered the search for galaxies: only M31 was visible. However, we made it to M3, M5, the Lagoon Nebula, the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula, and the Double Cluster, with pretty good views of most of them. We also saw Neptune once it rose high enough. Thanks to Ai-Lei for helping out.

Best,
Alex Howe