by Michael Wright

To close out another successful season of public nights, keyholders held a star party at the Simpson Observatory observatory on Friday, November 21, 2014.  About 15 keyholders and guests attended, hung out talking astronomy and enjoyed hot drinks and snacks. Gene Ramsey ran the C14 and pointed out many popular objects including Uranus and Neptune, M76 and M15.  I pushed the Hastings-Byrne refractor around to some interesting doubles and triples such as ι Cass and η Cass.  Bill Murray surprised us with an interesting triple star, οmicron-2 Eridani (aka 40 Eridani), that consists of a K dwarf, a white dwarf and a red dwarf. Despite the cold, we enjoyed the clear skies at the observatory. Perhaps we can make this an annual tradition.