u/SanMateoLocal

Please join us this Saturday, August 8, at dark (about 8:30pm) in Crestview Park in San Carlos, accessible from Brittan Avenue or Edgewood Drive, for another of our free telescope viewing parties.

This event is fun for kids and adults from ages 5 or 6 on up. We’ll be viewing nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters. We often have as many as 10 or more telescopes operated by our members, all amateur astronomers form the area. Our goal is to let you enjoy the wonders of the night sky with us.

Please DO NOT DRIVE INTO THE PARK with headlights on! This disrupts night vision and telescope views. Instead, park on Crestview Drive. Also, please leave pets at home as it is too easy to stumble over them in the dark.

Please no white flashlights or flash photography!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Please join us at Crestview Park in San Carlos Saturday, June 20 from roughly 9pm to midnight or so, for a free evening of telescope viewing, sponsored by the San Mateo County Astronomical Society (SMCAS.net).

We start setting up a little before dark—if you’d like to watch astronomers set up and configure telescopes, join us before then.

Lots of lovely sights to see including a Jupiter -Venus conjunction, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and more!

PLEASE TURN OFF HEADLIGHTS if you drive into the parking lot. The lot is almost always full so it’s better to park on the street and walk the few yards to where telescopes will be set up. The lights disrupt everyone’s night vision.

This event is great for kids from about 6 on up to 106, but we ask to please leave pets at home for this as it is very easy to fall over them in the dark or knock over a telescope with a leash.

Please supervise kids closely!

Thanks and see you tomorrow night!

Last night those of us at the San Mateo County Astronomical Society star party enjoyed to a dazzling display including something I’ver never seen in my life: the planet Mercury with the naked eye! I’d you plan you can easily see this again tonight if the clouds hold off, just as twilight settled in and I’ll explain how.

If you look carefully at these images, the bright starlike object top left is Venus; below her and somewhat to the right, above the trees, the next brightest object is Jupiter.

Now follow that line down among the treetops at the bottom right and another starlike dot there, just to the right of a tree is Mercury.

One image here I’ve tagged with scrawled initials of the three planets. Mercury is very hard to catch because it is so close to the sun from our perspective here on earth; you’re always looking sunward, so you have to catch it when the sun is down and Mercury hasn’t quite set yet, which is very tough to do; and Mercury is tiny, smaller than several moons in our solar system including Ganymede and Titan, moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Conditions last night were special and about 20 or 30 attendees were able to catch this both by naked eye and through Chanan’s telescope. I had placed my own Dobsonian in a spot where the trees blocked Mercury’s brief show, but my iPhone did a decent job snagging the view.

Tonight if you go somewhere with a clear horizon to the west northwest, (the mound in Seal Point Park would be ideal) as the sun fades. Venus will pop out among all starlike objects even before the sky is fully dark. Then keep watching below and to the right and Jupiter should emerge next. Then as it gets darker, keep looking for Mercury! It’s very rare to see with naked eyes (or even binoculars).

If you go to Seal Point Park you can park in areas align J Hart Clinton Drive, as the parking lot will close, but it’s easy to walk in and up onto the mound.

Please join us at Crestview Park in San Carlos Saturday, June 13 from roughly 9pm to midnight or so, for a free evening of telescope viewing, sponsored by the San Mateo County Astronomical Society (SMCAS.net).

We start setting up a little before dark—if you’d like to watch astronomers set up and configure telescopes, join us before then.

Lots of lovely sights to see including a Jupiter -Venus conjunction, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and more!

PLEASE TURN OFF HEADLIGHTS if you drive into the parking lot. The lot is almost always full so it’s better to park on the street and walk the few yards to where telescopes will be set up. The lights disrupt everyone’s night vision.

This event is great for kids from about 6 on up to 106, but we ask to please leave pets at home for this as it is very easy to fall over them in the dark or knock over a telescope with a leash.

Please supervise kids closely!

Thanks and see you tomorrow night!