A Night at the Cherry Festival
Last night while checking out my emails, I found one from Richard Kuschell which said he was heading out to downtown Traverse City and invited the GTAS group to bring their telescopes down for some sidewalk astronomy. Gary Carlisle and I heeded the call. I got down to the TC Visitors Center across from the Open Space on the Bay where most of the food booths, the entertainment stage, and most other commercial booths were, abd behind the Visitors Center from all the carnival rides. The blocked off Union street at the Parkway, and with every light change came a wave of humanity across the Parkway. I stopped at the baracades at the intersection to offload my telescope. Richard was already there to watch over it while I found an empty parking space four blocks away. Gary got there a bit later. He was parked closer due to having parking privileges downtown. However He and Richard had to go to his car and retrieve his Celestron 8 telescope. I think it was still a two block hike.

Above: Peeking at Jupiter around the Visitor Center sign
Anyway, the moon was visible early on. Later on Jupiter rose, but was bothered by trees, light pole, and requires moving the telescopes around. Richard was able to find a location to view Saturn. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and attracted lots of folks young and old to the eyepieces.

Above: In the middle of Union Street to view the moon through Richard’s telescope
At about 11:30 p.m. we packed up. The police allowed us to bring our cars to the location to load up. A very fun night!

Above: Looking at Jupiter just above the trees (and through a light pole) through my ’scope.



