The Rockfish Valley Foundation, Central Virginia Master Naturalist Chapter, and the Charlottesville Astronomical Society (CAS) invite you to join us for an evening of stargazing on October 3 at Rockfish River Trail Head at the Bridge on Rt 151, 2 miles South of Nellysford in Nelson County. The event is open from 6:00 to 10:30. Bring your picnic, enjoy a country sing-a-long around a campfire. Stargazing will start at approximately 7:00. This event is open and free to the public. Parking is available off at the Trail Head – look for Hurricane Camille historic marker. Rain date is October 4.
CAS members will be on hand with their telescopes and binoculars to provide views of a number of celestial objects. The young crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Venus, all low in the West, will be visible early in the evening. Afterwards, we will be able to view the companion star of Polaris (not visible to the naked eye) and also look at the double stars Mizar in the Big Dipper and colorful Albireo in Cygnus. A variety of deep-sky objects will also be visible, including the Double Cluster, which is a big open star cluster in Perseus, the Andromeda galaxy M31, the Pinwheel galaxy M33 in Triangulum, the giant globular star cluster M13 in Hercules, the Ring nebula M57 in Lyra, and the North America nebula NGC 7000 in Cygnus.
For further details, contact Peter Agelasto, at (434) 361–2251.
For more about the sponsors, see:
http://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/centralblueridge.html
