Hammonasset Public Viewing, August 11

By Donna Pursley

It was a beautifully clear night!  We had been waiting for a night like this for a long time. Members of both ASNH and the Thames Amateur Astronomical Society participated in this event. There was a nice collection of scopes and the public was gathering while it was still light. Everyone was watching for the first star. All the scopes had a line. Of course, the larger scopes had the longest lines. The problem with this is that you couldn’t switch targets while people were waiting to view what the scope was on. Because of this, many of us stayed on the brightest stars longer than we would have liked to.

There was a very bright Starlink train that everyone enjoyed.  There was also a fair number of meteors that wowed those who were looking the right way.

The event was to be over at 10:30 so the ranger needed to clear the crowd. There were a few hundred people and many of them stayed the whole time that we were there. I think this was the most successful event this year!