Viewing Notes
March 30, 2001
Telescopes for Telethon
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
N 32° 18' 38"
W 110° 49' 21"
Obsession 20" f/5 reflector

This past Friday evening was the Telescopes for Telethon / TAAA Public Star Party to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association's fundraising. This event was held at the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area on the NE side of Tucson. There were probably 40 or so telescopes and a crowd that had to be in the hundreds. I again brought out the 20" Obsession and had the most popular telescope at the event as evidenced by the continuous line of 15-20 people waiting to climb the ladder for a peek. This was a really neat event because there were people from as young as 2 to others who had to be in their 80's. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for this event - clear skies and an early evening temperature in the low 70's.

I spent most of the night with the scope locked onto M42, The Orion Nebula. The equatorial tracking platform worked great even though I only did a crude "this is where I think Polaris is" polar alignment. I did eventually move onto The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and, later, The Sombrero Galaxy (M104).

Around 9 p.m. one of our members said he was seeing the Aurora in the NE horizon. There was definitely a faint red glow that lasted about 5 minutes. About 11 p.m., as we were tearing down our scopes and packing things up the entire north sky, spanning about 100 degrees lit up. Deep red with some faint green and some lighter colored (almost white) streaks going from the horizon up through Ursa Major. As I'm an Arizona native, I've only seen the Aurora in pictures and movie clips.

All in all, I think the event was a success for the Telescopes for Telethon. Seeing The Aurora for the first time really was a treat for me and was the perfect end to a perfect evening.