Update 3/8: The public observation scheduled for this Saturday,
March 9th at Pilot Mountain State Park is cancelled
due to poor weather, clouds and a chance of rain
during the observation period. Our next scheduled events will be our regular monthly meeting on March 13th and a public observation at Stone Mountain State Park on March 30th. Details will be posted as the date nears.
The Forsyth Astronomical Society will be hosting the first of its bi-annual Pilot Mountain State Park observations for 2019 on Saturday March 9th. This event is FREE and open to the public. This is one of our premier public observation sites due to its darker skies. We will be able to show you more dark sky objects at this location than any of our other public event sites. We will be set up in the upper knob overlook parking area before sunset, 6:23 pm. Mars and a fine sliver crescent moon will be the earliest targets for the evening. As it becomes darker there will be more targets such as star clusters, nebulae and even galaxies to enjoy. The Great Orion Nebula is one target you definitely want to catch in one of our larger scopes. New objects will be rising as the night progresses. If you’ve made your rounds and have seen “all there is to see”. Go around again, there may be new targets to enjoy. We will continue with the observation activities until 10 pm.
Atop the mountain the temperatures can be as much as 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding area, possibly more if the wind is blowing. You’ll want to layer up for sure, especially the little ones. A trick we have long used for cold weather observing is to pin hand warmers, such as the HotHands, to your base layer at your mid back, near where your kidneys would be. This will add heat to your body and help maintain your core temperature, which is crucial to maintaining comfort in cold weather activities.
This event is a weather dependent event! Stay tuned to this post or the club’s Facebook page for a final weather call the Friday before the event. You can also call Kaleideum North after 5 pm on Friday for the weather call via their automated voice message system. Due to the how the lunar cycle(new moon) and Daylight Savings Time have fallen in such close proximity, there will be NO rain date for this observation in the event of a cancellation.
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