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Old 26-07-2018, 07:26 PM
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pfitzgerald (Paul)
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 625
Hi Andy

Best advice is plan ahead. Qtr or 3Qtr is good for showing up details on the Lunar surface. You could even try pointing out where Apollo 11 landed. I usually do the Moon either first or last (most often) in the session. Planets are always good especially Jupiter and Saturn - Saturn will be the one thing most of them will remember looking at in 20-30 times. Venus can be good when it is waxing/waning - good evidence for heliocentric solar system.

Alpha Centauri - showing two of the stars that make up the triplet.
Albireo - another good binary to show how stars have different colours based on their temperature.

You can check Australian Sky and Telescope for their take on monthly highlights for viewing.

Here's a brilliant website that has monthly sky charts that can be printed off your viewing audience.

http://www.skymaps.com/

A set of constellation cards can be found here:

http://assa.saao.ac.za/how-to-observ...arts/concards/

(Sky Safari is also a great app for what's up and good to look at).

Here's a link for a very simple planisphere - it needs to be printed out on A3 card - A4 is usable, but a bit on the small side for young kids. Get your Guides to do this as a lead in activity and bring them along on the night.

http://www.docdb.net/downloads/ssw/ssw-v08.pdf

(This is the planispheres home website: http://www.psychohistorian.org/)

I'm sure that other IIS members will add to this list for your - it will be a full on night and you'll be flat out viewing objects and answering questions - but it will be a really worthwhile endeavour for those who attend and yourself.

Last thing - plan your viewing - planets first? stars? objects by transit time? all up to you.

Enjoy!

Paul
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