The Gloucester Area Astronomy Club

Present: Patrick, Dick L, and myself, along with several couples who visited for awhile.

Best transparency in a long time, very dry (no dew at all until long after the moon was up), and great seeing. Only downside was that deep sky viewing time was cut short, but I drove myself night blind absorbing colors and features of the waning moon at 300x.

Also at 300x, could detect subtle color difference between Saturn and rings, and between outer and inner rings:

http://www.practicalspace.com/saturn/images/hubble-saturn-1.jpg

Found what I've dubbed The Little Hercules Cluster (near the Great Cluster, and also sits at the apex of a triangle formed with two stars):

http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~mischa/gallery_ccd/ngc6229.jpg

Visited my old favorite binary, though I just learned it's actually a triple star system. The distance between primary and secondary is 55 AU's (astronomical unit = distance between earth and sun):

http://jumk.de/astronomie/big-stars/ras-algethi.shtml

And only heard two mosquitos all night. Probably the last bug-free viewing before the fall.

Alan