Here's the report I submitted to the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society:

For Astronomy Night 2012 (Friday, April 27th) three of us ventured to LEAP Academy in center-city Camden, NJ (we were a couple of blocks from Camden City Hall, which can be seen in the background towards the southwest in one of the pictures I posted).

All three of us (Bill Lee, Jeremy Young and myself) are members of the Willingboro Astronomical Society, while Bill and I are also members of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society (the latter being our primary connection and contact with Astronomy Night, a.k.a., City-Wide Telescope Night).

I arrived at the school’s playground around 7:15 pm (about 35 minutes before sunset). Jeremy and Bill followed soon after. Learning some lessons from last year’s impromptu effort at LEAP, I had been in contact with school personnel and someone with a key was at the large gate to the playground to unlock it so we could drive in and set up our scopes behind the cars (just as we would do on the field at a WAS Public Star Watch).

We formed a line on the eastern end of the playground to get as far we could from the school building on the west side of the playground to maximize the viewing time we would have for Venus, and because there were a couple of new lights on utility poles near the school (luckily, not all of those lights were working even though the principal said they’re controlled by PSE&G and the school can’t turn them off). We still had a good horizon towards the east, so Saturn would be visible when the sky was darker.

Bill brought his 6-inch refractor while Jeremy and I had our nearly identical 12.5-inch Newtonians (“dobs”). Since each was on an alt-azimuth mount, we were set up and ready to go shortly after arrival. The crescent moon (about 36% illuminated) was easily visible in the still-bright sky and Venus (a 29% crescent and a brilliant magnitude -4.7) was also visible above the school building, which was blocking the setting sun and some of the surrounding glare). Jupiter, at a mere 8 degrees altitude at 8 pm (and just 11.5 degrees solar elongation) would have been a very difficult object even if we had a clear horizon.

Around sunset (7:51 pm EDT), people started arriving and the first things we looked at were the moon and Venus. Many of them on seeing Venus in a scope for the first time thought they were looking at the moon because of the crescent shape (and with Venus sporting a 36 arc-second diameter, the crescent was really obvious in the scope). But when we showed the moon for comparison, the plain surface of Venus contrasted sharply with the rugged terrain of the moon. In the scope, there was still a dim wash of earthshine on the non-solar-illuminated side. In my scope at 64x, I can fit the entire lunar disc in the field of view – it was really lovely with the bright-side features contrasting with the ghostly grey glow in the earthshine.

Mars and Saturn were also primary targets when it got a bit darker. Mars is tough for public observing. It’s not that big and the features are subtle. But it clearly was a disc and there was no doubt about the wash of ruddy color (the color was even apparent to most everyone naked eye). Saturn, of course, was a delight. As usual, a lot of folks ask if there was a picture or some type of video display inside the scope. With the current tilt, the rings are really showing well now and we could easily see four of its moons (being careful to discount a nearby 9th magnitude field star).

At 9:30 pm, we had a good pass of the International Space Station. It reached a peak altitude of 25 degrees and a peak brightness of magnitude -1.8 per Heavens-Above. Unfortunately for us, much of the pass was behind the school building in the west, but by using the chart from H-A, we were able to pick it up when it emerged near Betelgeuse and then followed it until it faded away in the earth’s shadow not too far below Alphard (Alpha Hydrae). Luckily, Alphard at magnitude 2.0 was visible from center-city Camden, so we were able to anticipate the ISS path from Betelgeuse to it. Thanks to Mark C. for the alert about the ISS pass; a check of Heavens-Above is standard procedure the afternoon of a star watch, but once in a while I forget, so it doesn’t hurt to have a reminder! By the way, the ISS had only three occupants. On Friday morning, Expedition 30 ended when three of the crew returned to earth.

A center-city location is not very good for deep-sky objects; nevertheless, I was able to find a smudge of M51 (specifically, NGC 5194, but not its partner NGC 5195). A couple of the students, with their young eyes, were also able to see the smudge. I think they appreciated the smudge represented billions of stars, and if they could see it from a dark site, there would be two objects present and wisps of spiral arms could be seen. In that regard, I handed out a bunch of my cards to the folks so they would have the web address for the WAS where they could find info on the Public Star Watches. Hopefully, some of them can make it out to the dark skies of the Pines.

I also looked at a couple of double stars in the scope, Mizar & Alcor (those two were borderline naked eye) and Algieba (Gamma Leonis). I’m always surprised that double stars are well received by the public. Maybe I shouldn’t be. Algieba was really beautiful last night with the matched golden color of each star and the fine line dividing them.

Finally, because it can be tough to see many of the stars and constellation patterns in a center-city location, I didn’t do a formal sky tour with the green laser. However, my 200 mW beam showed readily under the conditions so I used it on an ongoing basis to highlight the point at hand. For example, it was great for noting the expected position of the ISS and to point it out when it appeared.

All in all, we had a fine night. Much appreciation and many thanks were expressed by those attending (I estimate 50 to 75 over the course of the event). Quite a few were already looking forward to next year’s event. We left the playground shortly after 10 pm.

I think it was a very successful effort!