[niko]

I have been asked for ages by 2 younger colleagues if they could come up and look through my scope sometime (to badly quote an ol' movie line!).

After months of procrastinating on my part we finally managed to get it together on Wednesday night. Hughie, the weather god, similed on us and it was a gorgoeus cloudless night (at least for the first half).

Young Jo has dreamed for being an astronomer since she was a kid and recounted stories of lying in her friend's backyard as kids making up their own constellations from what they could she. She admitted she still sneaks out to the local schoolyard on moonless nights to lie on her back and stare at the sky. The young fella with us was just as excited though had a slightly more philisophical view of the cosmos.

Anyway I plonked the 10" dob in the backyard and brushed off the very dusty observational skills.

First the moon through the 25mm and 8mm eyepieces. A huge "Wow!" from both of them. Then on the Jupiter where I was thrilled I could show them the moons and the bands even in Melbourne city skies. Of course we had to stop by Orion and on way to one of my favourites, the Jewel Box. Then they pushed me out of the way and cruised the sky looking for their own stuff. They found a few double stars and even enjoyed the colour of stars like Betelguese.

We swung back to Jupiter so they could see that the moons had moved. They both expressed such delight at everything they saw even though I struggled to find all that much above.

By then the clouds had rolled in and it was after midnight on a school night!

It was such fun to have such an enthusiastic audience - I have to so it again.

It also made me think we should all be doing a bit more sidewalk astronomy

cheers

niko