UPDATE: Friday, 4:00 p.m. – Green Lakes is ON for tonight. We hope to see you!

Greetings, fellow astrophiles!

All predictions so far hint at Friday Night being clear and nearly wind-less, making this Green Lakes session the first really good scheduled observing event this year.

Bob aligning at the 2014 Green Lakes session.

And the timing couldn’t be better! We’ve still Venus and Jupiter (now comfortably post-June 30th-conjunction) lower in our Western Skies after sunset, Saturn appearing soon thereafter, we can look in the direction of Pluto as we await the New Horizons closest-approach on July 14th, and the best of the Summer Messiers are out in full force within the band of the Milky Way.

This event is free and open to the public (if you arrive around 8:00 p.m., usually they do not even charge a parking fee). We’ll be there by 8:00 p.m. to get our location finalized and to start the layers of bug spray. The attendance at this event is usually considerable for the first hour (lots of kids), then a significant exodus occurs as dusk ends and night begins (and the observing and discussion gets a bit more involved). Typically, everyone packs up around 11:00 p.m., but that may depend on the skies and the seeing. Finally announcement on the CNYO page by 5:00 p.m. Friday evening.