Beautiful night under the Stars

Last Friday I went out in the cold to the Science Museum of Virginia, along with other Richmond Astronomical Society members to show the public the stars. It was the best night for stargazing in years. Despite the light
pollution of Richmond, we were able to see lots of stars with the naked
eye, down to about 3rd magnitude, and solar system bodies and stars both were spectacular. Saturn produced its usual assemblage of rings that are the highlight for many visitors, and the Moon was in an especially good phase. The alignment on my telescope on Vega and Capella was especially good, perhaps because I was able to get Polaris in the guide scope, and because Vega and Capella were near the horizon and far apart. Objects stayed in my telescope reasonably well, despite non-fresh batteries. It was the first time that I can remember that I was able to get the Andromeda Galaxy in my telescope at a Skywatch. It showed a rather unexciting fuzzy light ball. I got the Orion Nebula in the telescope as well, and with my light pollution filter, the details of the nebula really stood out. And to top it off, a -5 magnitude bolide, brighter than Venus, shot through the constellation Gemini.

We tried looking at the street with the light pollution filter. The bright yellow hat of Arby's became a dull red, and McDonald's yellow arches also turned a dull red. The peachy streetlights turned much dimmer, as the filter was especially aimed at stopping that light. If streets were like that, we could see more stars. People need to stop blaring their lights.