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Hi Mitchell,
There are a few things that will help you, your gear and the crowd.
* Have a short step ladder with a handle that people can hold onto, and you ask them to hold onto. This does a few things: it helps people keep their balance, and it keeps hands off the scope and eyepiece. The first thing novices do is grab the eyepiece.
* Plan three to four objects, five if there aren't too many people, per scope. Have a mate man one of the two scopes. If they aren't too well versed with using a scope, put them onto the Moon which will prove the easiest to reacquire when someone bumps the scope.
* Give the folks a rundown on how to approach the scope, and how NOT to grab at it. Mention how they should be patient at the eyepiece as things other than the Moon will be dim and require a patient eye to make out detail. When a new person steps up to the scope, tell them to "look into the glass window". I've found this the best way to describe the process of looking into the eyepiece. When looking at a dim DSO, mention how averted vision works and how to do it. It will help them heaps. Do this quietly - it makes it personal and precious.
* When you've got everyone together, give them a rundown of what is up in the sky at the time. A laser pointer here can help. Show them where the Southern Cross is, where the Pointers are and the significance of Alpha Centauri. Then show them the constellation Scorpio. No one forgets their first look of the scorpion.
* From the tail of Scorpio, show them down from its sting the location of Sagittarius, and the general location of the centre of the Milky Way, 30,000 light years away. We can't see the central bulge of the MW because one of the galaxy's arms cuts in between us and the central bulge.
* Object wise, have them look first at the object that's about to set first, probably Saturn. Make the Moon next (or the other way around for which ever sets first). Eta Carina and Omega Centauri are pretty much finished for the city at this time of year. But Alpha Centauri is bright enough to deal with the city lights while down low.
* A good globular is M22. Your 5" refractor will have no problem with it.
* A good nebula is M8, the Lagoon nebula.
* A great open cluster is M7. Brilliant for the 3" scope at low power.
* Antares is a great star for its colour. It is a red giant, a star that was of our sun's size that's going through its death throes.
* M6 is another nice bright open cluster.
Last tip, if you can, don't use your best eyepieces. You don't know what crap could be on people's eyelashes - make up, oil, conjunctivitis. There's also fingers. You really don't want to subject your best eyepieces to this.
This should give you some food for thought. I'm sure other people can help with other suggestions.
Mental.
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