One of my friends asked if they could bring their family over the holiday to look at stars. The weather last night was perfect.
I got to the observatory early. I started a small camp fire, turned the heat on in the warm room, and set up some lawn chairs & table for snacks.
Since I had some time to kill I read an interesting article on stellar mass and the life cycles of multiple star systems. I really hadn't thought much about it before. Multiple star systems are often composed of stars in different stages of evolution. However, that doesn't mean there was a time before they became gravitationally bonded or that there will be a time when they lose a star from the system. Most multiple systems are born together, live their existence together, and die together. That is probably elementary to a lot of people, but new to me. I just hadn't thought much about it.
Anyway . . .
When Martha an Allen arrived their family came in three cars. There were 16 people of varying ages. We targeted the following objects in order: Saturn, Jupiter, Andromeda, Pleiades, and Mars. For each object I explained what they were looking at and answered questions. We observed most objects with our naked eyes, through binoculars, at 50x and at 175x. We were in no hurry. We let everyone have as many views and take as long as they wanted. The kids were all super excited. I think the fathers were just about as excited as the kids.
All in all it was a very fun night. Even as they were walking back to the cars, some came back for a last look.
