[JaseD (Jase)]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the replies... It's awesome to see people help out.

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Hi Jase
It depends on the time of year and the time of the evening that the observing evening is being held and what telescopes are being used. If it soon and is in the early evening, say between 7:00 and 9:00, which I would expect for a school event then by the end of the session Jupiter will be high enough to see detail and its moons.

Sorry I forgot to advise the dates and left out some details to try not to "flavour" the responses. It's in about 12 weeks, and sunset around those days is approximately 1800. Viewing group will arrive at approximately 1900 and I have advised pick up for between 2140 and 2200. There will be two scopes available one is an SCT 8" and one is a 14" dob.*Edit Whoops I forgot my own scope an 8" astrograph newt. so that makes 3* I may be able to secure 4 sets of bino's, it just depends whether my contact with them, is out field or in barracks.

Originally Posted by gaseous

I'm making a big assumption here, but I'm guessing a school outreach night probably won't involve driving and hour or two to a dark site, so galaxies might be difficult to pick up, depending on the size of your scope. Even a very large dob may struggle to get any appreciable galaxy resolution in a suburban setting.

The location is not a dark site, but is in the 'green zone' or 324 μcd/m2, on the light pollution map. Whilst I shouldn't technically need it, I will have access to an OIII light pol filter.

Originally Posted by gaseous

There was an article in Astronomy magazine a year or so ago which gave a good rundown on how to operate such a night, and from memory the rule was to keep it to a handful of objects. I could dig it out for you if you wanted. 150 minutes might go very quickly if you're answering a lot of questions, changing eyepieces, or have a lot of people to get through. It also might be worth printing a small list of general housekeeping rules issued prior to the night, mentioning things like insect repellent, no bright lights, getting their eyes dark adapted, etc.

Thanks Patrick, that would be great if you could pull that article. It would be a great help.

Yeah the rules will be spelt out in the days leading up to the event. We live in a mozzie prone area, so I will have repellant. I will be supplying red cellophane to cover their headlights.

Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky

The Moon is a must have for children in my experience. Preferably, a 5 to 9 day Moon giving an interesting terminator. A 7 to 9 day Moon will not interfere with other targets as they are all bright enough.

The moon is about 3 days old at that point... so depending on the size of the crescent it may or may not be a good txt, but should we have enough I will throw in a moon filter.

Originally Posted by gaseous

NGC3372, NGC 2070 and M42. Omega Centauri and a few of the brighter open clusters around Carina/Crux (Jewel Box, Pearl, Wishing Well, Southern Pleiades). DY Crucis near Beta Crucis is a nice carbon star, and others have given some nice doubles.

Originally Posted by Saturnine

For binaries, Alpha Cent. Alpha Crucis, Rigel, Alpha Circinus, Nu Carina, H 3945 in Canis Major for colour contrast, Gamma Volans Clusters, Omega Cent, NGC3532, NGC2516, NGC3293, NGC4755, IC2602.Neb & Galaxies, M42, Eta Carina Neb, NGC3242 planetary neb, M83, NGC5128 Cent A galaxy.

Cheers Jeff and Patrick, they seem like some good tgts... I have some time to check them out first. I do like the idea of the Jewel Box and the wishing well (NGC3532). The Ghost of Jupiter might be an interesting tgt if the light doesn't hinder us. I was thinking Albireo (B. Cyg) for a binary but the H3945 might be slightly better.

Also given the time of the year, Saturn and Jupiter are going to be nearly perfect.


I am considering putting in some planisheres and doing a bit of a competition to allow the kids just look at the sky. I am also going to discuss some aboriginal stories about the sky, including Walu (the sun and a woman) and Ngalindi (the moon and originally a fat man)... these are the Yolngu words for these entities, but other places are similar or the same which is interesting given the different languages and dialects. This brings the Aboriginal kids into the conversation and acknowledges the different stories around the world.

Anyway, thoughts are still appreciated, given I have never put on a night for someone else. It's normally just me and my family looking and we grab the sky walk app, look up using the AR and go yep that looks interesting lets look there.

Cheers
Jase.