Second November 2024 Star Party

Our second star party in November marks the beginning of serious planetary observing, with 7 planets observable if you stay late. Enjoy the night sky away from the bright lights of the towns and cities in our area! The night will be dark - perfect for star gazing. Bring your own telescopes and binoculars or use those provided by our members. A telescope is not required.

The short day provides a fantastic range of observing options if you stick around long enough. Hercules will be setting into the sun glare just after sunset at the same time as Venus -- the brightest object in the sky -- will be making a cameo appearance low in the SW. Saturn will be bright, and nearly 40° above the horizon, readily visible to the naked eye and spectacular in some of the longer focal length telescopes. Neptune, and later Uranus, will be observable through a telescope, and Jupiter will rise in the mid-evening. If you stick around long enough, you can see Orion rise in the east, harbinger on the approaching winter. Mars will sneak over the eastern horizon around 11:30, enabling you to see all of the planets except Mercury in the one night.

Telescope operators will arrive about 30 minutes early to set up. Observing begins about an hour after sunset and will probably end around 11, or whenever club members decide. All will take place at the park's West Beach parking lot.

You must RSVP with your car's make, model, and license plate number at least one day beforehand. This info is required by and sent to the State Park authorities because we are there after park hours. If you attend without being on the list and the police show up, the consequences can include revocation of our permit for after hours use.

If you have not been to one of our star parties before then please review our guide to star party etiquette.

A forecast of the viewing conditions can be found on the Clear Sky Chart for Lake Taghkanic State Park. It shows various viewing conditions (cloud cover, transparency, darkness) as well as temperature, wind, etc. Even more information about Astronomy at Lake Taghkanic State Park is available at http://www.spy-hill.net/myers/astro/ltsp/

Note: late Fall viewing conditions can be very clear - but also quite cold. Since you will be standing around looking at the stars for a while you may feel even colder than otherwise when outdoors. Dress warmly and consider bringing extra layers in case you get colder as the night goes on.

For further information, text or call Tim Denman at 845-245-5483 or Jack Chastain at 845-430-6851.

Featured image credit: Steve Dittmar, MHAA member and Webmaster, has been learning astrophotography since 2014. Today he's also an instructor at the Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory's astrophotography workshop and teaches privately as well. He loves imaging deep sky objects and sharing views at our public star parties that make guests say, "Oh wow!".