(Updateded 2026-08-24)

Recent Events:

  • August 8 – James Creek Cider House (Cameron)
    • Coordinator: Steve B
    • Volunteers: Blair, Alan, Sally, Martin, Steve B
    • Recap: Steve B –
When I said that I was going out on a limb approving the James Creek event last nigth, I had no idea that we would get to see the Milky Way there, but that is exactly what happened. The forecast for a clear band over Cameron held up. When arriving, there was a storm front sliding by to the northwest, plus thousands of angry gnats trying to eat our faces. As darkness arrived, the gnats went away, while for a minute it looked like a storm cell might visit us. By ~8:50PM though, the sky was quite clear except towards the northwest and the northern light dome over Sanford, and when they shut the outdoor lights off around 9:00PM, it was possible to see the arc of the Milky Way from Sagittarius through the Summer Triangle.
Sadly, we were not equipped for the huge crowd that showed up. For most of the evening we only had Blair’s Dobsonian and Alan’s SeeStar, while there were at least 120 people there to observe. The line to the Dobsonian was non-stop for over an hour. Blair was able to view Venus right around and after sunset and then Mizar, Alcor, and Albireo later. Alan and Sally were able to show guests Sagittarius and the Tea Pot, while capturing M8, Triffid, and M22 with the SeeStar. Martin was briefly able to capture M13 with his SeeStar.
We will schedule a fall event at James Creek.

 

  • August 12 – The Willard Rooftop (Raleigh)
    • Coordinator: Steve B
    • Volunteers: Blair, Ben, Jesus, Leigh, Mark, Dana, Steve B
    • Recap: Steve B –

We didn’t have perfect seeing conditions last night but I don’t regret going for it. We had the usual summer high altitude haze with a few low clouds briefly drifting through. Maybe a dozen stars or so stars were visible. People lined up before sunset to look at the Sun and Venus, and once darkness started setting in a line formed that didn’t stop until 10:30 PM. Blair viewed the Sun, Venus, and M13 (which was faint) with his Dobsonian. Ben viewed M13, the Eagle Nebula, and M51 with is EAA rig. Jesus showed his gallery of astro images on a tablet. Leigh, Mark, and Dana helped answer questions from the folks in line, the most frequent one being “where can I see the Perseids?”. No meteors were observed, as predicted. At least 100 people got a chance to view something. The Willard staff were welcoming and appreciative as usual. We will plan to be back there sometime in October.

Other than a few sprinkles when I arrived to park, we managed to dodge any rain. I was very clear with little high altitude haze. We only encountered low clouds around 9:00PM when the observing started. The heat and humidity were *oppressive*, though.
There were maybe a hundred Duke students, some more interested in astronomy than others. I don’t know everything that was observed, but it did include the Moon, Polaris, Antares, Albireo, M7, M44, IC 4665, and the North American Nebula.

 

Upcoming Events:

Notes:

The Outreach Committee is looking for volunteers to coordinate events and assist at events with or without a telescope. To join the committee send a blank email to [email protected]. Any club member is welcome, regardless of experience level. We will train you! To volunteer for an event, register via the RAC Calendar event entry.

Event coordinators: please send an email after the event to [email protected] indicating:

  • How many RAC members volunteered.
  • Estimate of how many attendees were present.
  • Brief synopsis of the event: what interesting things were observed, attendee reactions, host impressions, etc.