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Ed,
G'day.
Weather permitting, my astronomy group does public outreach twice a month, occasional school nights and community events. We had 10 telescopes at a School Night last Wednesday with students (aged 8) and their parents - 200 over 2 hours.
When you get a combination of well behaved and interested kids, and well behaved and interested adults, it is just a true pleasure to give someone possibly their first look at the night sky through a telescope.
My scope is a collapsable 12" Skywatcher Dob - all manual. Unless you get someone with malicious intent, they are not going to hurt it, so when a group isn't so big and time permits, I like to give kids and adults a go at lining an object up in the finderscope to look at for themselves.
Always a bit of a surprise when something doesn't move the 'right' way. And then they learn to focus for their own eyes.
You know when they have seen. It is great sharing the love.
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