International Observe The Moon Night 2019

On Saturday, October 5th, the AAA held observing sessions in five locations around the city to participate in International Observe the Moon Night 2019. Although this worldwide event began in 2010, this year was the first that our members rallied to coordinate public observing sites in each borough. Thanks to Tom Haeberle for his help in establishing these locations for Moon viewing through AAA telescopes:

Brooklyn – Central Library at Grand Army Plaza   – Transmitter Park, Greenpoint
Manhattan – Lincoln Center
Queens – Hunter’s Point Park
Bronx – Johnson Ave., Riverdale
Staten Island – Great Kills Park
Each of these locations was posted to NASA’s official worldwide map
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon/annual-event/overview/

We would like to thank the following observers for their support:
Tom Haeberle, Irene Pease, Faissal Halim, Alan Faitelewicz, Peter Lipchultz, Peter Tagatac, Mary Alford, Joe Delfausse, William Lam, Roman Barroso, John Benfatti, James Paoluccio, Rori Baldari, Adjina Dekidjiev

So, How Did It Go?
The autumn weather gods smiled down on us for, well…too short a time. At 6:30pm the evening was beautifully clear, with Saturn just a scant half degree away from the first quarter Moon. Peter L’s low-power 26mm eyepiece revealed both objects in the same field of view! So cool! Since I had forgotten my iPhone adapter, I didn’t capture the image, so my little illustration will have to suffice.

Roughly an hour or so later, I noticed an odd cloud mass looming up from the southern horizon. It appeared as if it was rising from the ground upwards. At first it seemed to be advancing slowly, just underneath the Moon. But by 8:30pm, like “The Blob,” it moved in fast and enveloped the entire sky with clouds. Oh well, there’s always next year: September 26, 2020.

Learn more about IOMN at NASA’s Night Sky Network
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/event-view.cfm?Event_ID=96642