One memorable experience for me was on a trip to Canberra in about 1988 with my wife and son. I was a little interested in space and read that there was an observatory near a club of some sort. We went to check it out and were surprised to find you had to walk through a pokie club of some sort to get in. Well in we went to a dome where a uni student named Attila
was just shutting the door and leaving. He said it had clouded out and he was closing for the night but he unlocked the door again and took us in to show us the telescope. It was a C14 and he explained how it worked ect. Then we went to leave and my son looked up through a skylight I think and piped "I can see a star." Sure enough there was a break in the clouds and Attila said "oh that's Sirius-oh no it's not it's Jupiter!". So he said come on back and he unlocked the door and took us back in. For the next 30mins or so we had our first look at Jupiter which was stunning to us. Then the clouds closed up again and out we went again. I've often wondered where Attila ended up and will always be grateful for the effort he put in. I think he said the C14 was to be replaced with a 16 inch donated by a Japanese businessman. Anyway that's one of many positive experiences to do with astronomy that I've had, Cheers Richard