Joe Izen (joe@utdallas.edu) hosted a dark sky star party (open to the public) on September 19-20, 2025, at his home at 129 North Fork Rd., near Centennial, WY. These dates were selected to coincide with a new moon, Saturn opposition (it is closest to Earth) and for a viewing of the transit of Titan (weather permitting).
Telescope setup started around 5 p.m. and dark sky viewing was supposed to start around 8:30. Cloudy weather on the 19th restricted viewing to only about one hour. The following night, however, skies were mostly clear, and the remaining guests enjoyed good views of Saturn, the Andromeda galaxy cluster, Messier objects, globular clusters, the beautiful veil nebula and numerous other dark sky objects.
Thanks to Joe Izen for hosting this event. Robert Roten of LASSO brought the club's eight inch Orion scope on Saturday, Sept. 20 and eventually managed to find Saturn, which is always a pleasure to see, and the double cluster, among a few other objects with help from fellow observers.
