2024-09-11

South Plains Astronomy Club

Observing Under The Dark West Texas Skies

The weather was forecast to be mostly or totally cloudy, so it was a pleasant surprise that the clouds held off until after midnight. We had a few bands of clouds pass over, but we usually had at least half the sky open for viewing. The seeing and transparency were pretty better than average in the clear spots, which was another pleasant surprise.

Among the many objects we viewed, I got to see the “green comet”, which was a nice binocular object. It’s just one binocular field of view from Mars, so it’s very easy to find. There was no color, but we could see a good amount of the tail in my 100mm binoculars.

I had the chance to take a few quick shots of the Ransom Canyon star party during a break in the fun:

Looking west towards Lubbock’s light pollution dome
Ransom Canyon star party, Feb 11, 2023
Looking northeast over the center of Ransom Canyon