Comments and anecdotes about the event:
175 guests. It cleared up around 4 pm until we closed up. We saw Venus, Saturn and the Sun. Slava went down to where people were walking in and hijacked them to come look. We even had an alien sighting (See Email following). First and only time this week people said the line was too long to look. Skip, Here's my version of the weather balloon siting: On July 28, Sunday evening, I helped out at the Westminster Astronomy Club's booth at the Carroll County 4-H Fair. Skip Bird and B. Ryan were at the booth also. It started getting dark and we were hoping to spot Saturn with a 12" and 72" long telescope. We knew that the star Arctarus would appear in the sky before Saturn. We saw a star directly overhead where Arctarus should be, but Skip wisely recommended that we view it first. It was actually a weather balloon, fully inflated and very bright. While Skip left to gather some fair goers to view the balloon, I followed the balloon with the telescope as it moved through the sky. The balloon suddenly popped into about four pieces! I continued to follow these pieces. One of them was apparently the balloon's tracking devise. It was quite an experience to see the balloon and to see it pop! Eric Hirtle