We have been very busy hosting two star parties at Sedgwick Reserve within the last week!
The first was held on Saturday evening (April 30) for a group from the Friends of KITP, attended by LCOGTers Wayne Rosing, Rachel Ross and Robert Paulson. The Friends of KITP “creates educational and entertaining opportunities for members of the community to engage with renowned scientists.” One of these opportunities was for the group to come experience a beautiful evening at Sedgwick Reserve, which included hors'devours a tour of the ranch house and a walk to the pond, a delicious catered dinner with a welcome from Wayne with a brief history of LCOGT, and dessert while participating in a tour of the stars and constellations by Rachel and looking through telescopes at a handful of objects. Although electrical problems with BOS prevented us from observing through it, the group heard all about the telescope we had two other telescopes set up (an AP 178 and a Skylight F15), the skies were good and clear, and everyone had a great time!
The second star party was held on Wednesday evening (May 4) for a group from UCSB who are taking an observational astronomy class. During this class, they use the BOS remotely from campus to gather data to analyze throughout the quarter. We took a trip out there, including Rachel Ross and BJ Fulton from LCOGT, to give the students a hands-on feel for a telescope they have already been controlling through a computer. The BOS had been fixed (many thanks to the wonderful team at LCOGT!) and performed beautifully. Between the 0.8m and the AP 178 telescopes, a warm and very clear night, and a group of enthusiastic students, we took a tour of the sky and observed many objects including Saturn (with 4 visible moons!), M13, M5, M3, M51, M44, and more. I'm sure this group would have stayed all night if possible, but finally we decided to wrap things up a little after 11pm.
Both star parties were huge successes and the groups were great! Two very fun evenings!
