Fish Lake Winter Term Trip
April 8-10, 2005
Joyous times (and lack of serious sleep) prevailed as the weekend weather was the finest in many years- mild and clear right through the weekend!! Two days of warm solar observing and two nights of glorious deep sky observing. The EMU Celestron 14, the Delta College 13-inch Dob, and a host of smaller SCT's gave perfect views of globular clusters, the spiral arm structure of M51, the Whirlpool galaxy, and a slew of other objects. Students were able to complete many observations. Jupiter dominated the late evening sky while Saturn graced the western sky in Gemini. Students were also able to see #1 asteroid, Ceres, near Beta Librae (Zubeneschemali) and Comet Machholz hanging near Polaris, the North Star, at magnitude +8. The occasional meteor and satellite flyover added to the flavor of each night. The sun was relatively quiet but showed well through the two H-alpha telescopes in use. A nice hike, some radio-control car action, volleyball, the traditional trip to Dairy Queen and Sam and Jake's, plus terrific rocket launches rounded out the busy weekend. Still, there were moments of relaxation and study for those that chose to do so.... catch some rays while laying in the sun with a light jacket on. Ahhhh, finally what Fish Lake is truely all about!!
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