Railway Star Party — YES, TONIGHT!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2023, 7:40 PM
YES; THERE IS A STAR PARTY AT THE RAILWAY MUSEUM
Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway
Alna Center Station, Alna Road / Route 218, Alna ME 04535
Google Maps Plus Code: 39MJ+2QC Alna, Maine
https://www.google.com/maps/place/39MJ%2B2QC,+Alna,+ME+04535/@44.0825625,-69.6206843,482m/
7:40pm — Guests arrive by train (arrive earlier to set up)
CMAS will be hosting some sort of star party at the railway museum tonight, despite the increasingly cloudy weather. By the time that CMAS and the railway finished a long game of phone tag this afternoon, the railway said it was too late to cancel tonight’s train ride for which forty tickets had been sold. CMAS will be set up in the field at 7:40pm ready for the arrival of the train. Some forecasts predict a break in the clouds; if we get that, we’ll host a regular star party. If not, then we will show our telescopes and improvise a discussion of astronomy with the crowd, after which the train will depart to finish its ride.
Four of us are already committed to help. Anyone else who wants to join us is welcome to come along.
All tickets for the train are sold, so CMASians must arrive by car. Follow the link above for directions to the observing field. The star party will be at Alna Center Station, a stop along the tracks some distance from the museum proper. The observing field is reached by a long, narrow dirt driveway along a tree line at the edge of a field, marked by a couple of orange traffic cones but no other signage, found on the left side of Alna Road when traveling north on Route 218/Alna Road from Wiscasset.