387

[Kunama]

387

387 people looked through my 18" scope at Mt Stromlo Observatory between 6.30 pm and 11.30pm last night for the ANU RSAA Public Night event....

Guiding by Telrad for 5 hours continuously and my neck hurts.....

[Atmos]

Congrats! That is an average of a minute view per person so they'd have been pleased with that :)

[Tinderboxsky]

Great result. Such sessions are quite intense and tiring over a number of hours.
What targets were you focused on?

Steve

[Kunama]

Pretty easy targets for the night Steve due to the crowds, NGC104, NGC5139, NGC3372, Saturn, Mars and the crescent moon. While waiting for the sky to darken I pointed the scope at the crescent moon for a quick look. This turned out to be a faux pas as then the queue built up so big that I never got a chance to turn on the Nexus and do an alignment so everything was then done through the Telrad and a laser.

[RickS]

Good work, Matt!

[Kunama]

Cheers Rick, just spoke to the organisers and apparently there were 1500 visitors for the evening.....

also noticed yesterday that my clicker is broken and is stuck on 387 so there could have been quite a few more..... that's justice for cheaping out on a $3 clicker...

[Allan]

Did you get them all to sign the visitors book? Actually another idea, put a tin on the side of the scope, and charge a dollar a minute for a look, a bit like a peep show.

[Kunama]

The CAS do indeed have a Donation bucket and by the night's end it weighed half a ton..... :thanx:

[dannat]

I reckon I had 42 people look thru my scope - setup outside the local brewery..at one stage all the bar staff came out - whilst they were having a look I told them to get back inside cos I could see someone on the bar with their mouth on the tap. the cook came out twice