Well last night was lovely and clear and we just happened to have an unexpected guest. He saw the scope out in the yard and asked a few questions then finally got to the point - could I show him some things up there?
What a good time of year for this
We started with
- Saturn and the whow factor kicked in instantly - cloud patterns and the rings at that range!!
- The moons of Saturn were a real treat - he never thought that it would be possible to see them
- The Orion Nebula was next and we spent some time in there counting the stars and generally talking about nebulae
- Pointed out the LMC - a naked eye galaxy!!
- This lead to the Tarantula Nebula
- A quick hop over to Crux and we split alpha crux - that was fun as it looked like a single star in the binocs
- The Jewel Box had to be next - he couldn't believe the colours
- Up to the Five of Diamonds in Carina
- Then over to Eta Carina
- Omega Centurus was up high enough be then so he was gob smacked by that little one - told him to start counting the stars
- By this time Jupiter was up and the fact that he could see cloud patterns on something half a billion kilometers away just blew him out of the water
This little tour just pointed out to me how spoilt we are here with fairly clear skys and some of the best astronomical views available.
Not a bad introduction for someone who just dropped in.