......and you can usually see their faces because you have to set up with sufficient light so the kids don't crash into the scope or each other!
Finally got a scope out under clear(ish) skies last Saturday - but surrounded by interested folks so no serious observing but some serious introduction was happening.
I was at a camp somewhere north of Ballarat and south of Daylesford. Had promised to bring a scope.
Took the C8 (8" SCT) on wedge and my pack of public eyepieces. (30mm 80 deg clone, 15mm 80 deg clone, cheap 8-24mm zoom).
Set up late afternoon looking at a distant microwave tower at 250x. It's upside down, they all say! But Wow at the magnification and detail! I've done this before on a distant barbed-wire fence - never seen so many people excited by a barbed-wire fence
Started in the early evening before dinner with the crescent Moon and Saturn. Was grabbing gaps in the cloud cover. Super excitement at the Moon and Saturn. All the usual problems of getting kids who were too short for my stool, up to the eyepiece. Also the "holders-on" moving the scope in RA. But good fun. A few managed to snap off afocal Moon shots with their cameras.
Then off to an evening session indoors, then back out late evening. Sky cleared, fairly dark and the local lights weren't too much problem, no wind, mild dew (heaters fixed that) and mild temperatures for this part of Victoria - we were fortunate. Started with Jupiter. Main bands clearly visible and four main moons visible, one just touching the planet's disc when we started, then moving away. Major Wow! Moved onto Omega Centauri and 47 Tuc. Onto the Jewel Box, Alpha Centauri, Ruby Crucis. More Wow!
The cold cleared all but the intensely interested away to warm beds, and those left finished the night with M4, the Ring Nebula and NGC 253 low in the east.
Lots of discussion over breakfast. I have to advise some folks on binoculars to buy - maybe even some scopes!
I was fascinated by the different abilities of folks at the eyepiece. Working with a huge 80 deg 30mm 2" eyepiece, I would have thought it would have been so simple to get eye position. Most took a little while, some were immediately succesful, but some took ages and one could never see the image?
Anyone, I feel better though I didn't get an observing session for myself. But I'm now too spoiled with the Argo Navis on my 12" - looking through the finderscope was a pain.
Still I've had a "fix" to keep me going.
But it's great to show off the sky. Q. What's that up there - clouds? A. No, that is the massive number of stars in our own Galaxy. Q. What about those two clouds over there to the south. A. Those are satellite galaxies to our Milky Way. Responses:- Ooooooh!
(Of course, the kids mostly wanted to know where they could buy a green light sabre like mine
)