We had clear, dark skies for the Horseshoe Bend star gaze.  Horseshoe Bend National Military Park is located 12 miles north of Dadeville on Hwy 49, about one hour from Auburn-Opelika; and 1.5 hours from Montgomery. Representing AAS were:  our host, Rand Becker, along with Scott Thompson, Brent Holman, Russell Whigham, Frank Ward, and Allen & Christi Screws. Rand estimated that we had about 70 guests attending.

Rand began the indoor slideshow at 7:00 with a short Power Point presentation covering light pollution awareness, basic orientation to the night sky and some Creek/Cherokee star myths. 

About 7:30, the guests exited onto the field behind the park's main building where we had the telescopes set up:  Rand, with his 70mm refractor on the 3-day old Moon; Scott, and his 7-inch AstroPhysics refractor on the Great Orion Nebula; Frank, using tripod mounted binoculars,on the  Moon and Pleiades; Allen, using the AAS 8-inch Dobsonian, on the Andromeda Galaxy and later, Saturn;  and Russell, with hte Celestron C-11, viewing the Crab Nebula, M41, and M46.  We also pointed out naked-eye objects, including the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Beehive Cluster and several fainter Milkyway clusters.