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I turned up at the Solar System Model in St Kilda around 7:20 to see a slight scattering of cloud around the Moon with some very thick clouds on the western horizon. By about 8pm the clouds had pretty well cleared and stayed clear until around 11pm when I finally packed up and went home.
Several other members from the ASV were taking guided tours of the planetary model while we had three other scopes setup for passers by to look through. I guess we had about 100 people turn up, 40 were on the tour. I even had one local woman who was trying to take a photo from her house across the road when she noticed the crowd, so she came over in her jammies and slippers! We alternated between the Moon and Jupiter, with an ocassional view of Venus (boring). People were amazed at the detail on the Moon and the fact that they could see Jupiter while the Sun was up. The light pollution in the area is quite severe so we were pretty limited with any deep sky viewing...but managed to fit in Alpha Centauri, 47 Tuc and M42 for the people.
Hopefully we can get a few more things like this happening for IYA2009...which is exactly what it is all about!
I think many people will remember the event and the interest shown by the ASV members in showing them the skies. A job well done.
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