Having done a public night at a high school just yesterday, here are my thoughts:
It was half-moon, and everybody loves a good close-up look of the Moon. Lots of oh's and ah's. The response to Saturn was less enthusiastic than I expected, but seeing was rather poor and there wasn't much to be gained with high magnification.
Open clusters (especially M7) were much appreciated, globulars and nebulae not so much. The place was pretty light-polluted with the half-moon and lights from the school and a nearby sports field. I tried M17 with UHC-S filter and it looked alright, but few people remarked that they found it cool. Even Omega Centauri was rather ordinary.
What surprised me was the response to colour. Everybody loved colour. Albireo, the Jewel Box, EB365 near Mimosa, the blue tinge of Neptune, even the naked-eye blueness of Spica were appreciated.
Another surprise was how well M57 held up to light pollution. I didn't really expect to see much of it but it stood out clearly, and although small most people loved the little "smoke ring".
We had about 6 or 7 scopes out that night, and about 30 visitors. That seemed like a good ratio. The school's science teacher kept people engaged when they weren't looking through scopes.
My scope (6" Mak) being compact and on a reasonably sturdy EQ mount I didn't have to worry about people grabbing it (little girls hanging off the eyepiece were no problem
). I had to constantly remind people to focus carefully to get the best view, many seemed too shy to touch the scope.
I enjoyed it a lot, I'm sure you will, too.
Cheers
Steffen.