Last night was the big
sky show at my wife's school. Fifty students, 4 & 5 yr olds, plus one parent. No sibblings & only one parent on the whole allowed, for numbers. Roughly 100 all up. Alot of people.
The preschool's head teacher did a great job organising the night, dealing with parents & students & enthusing them all. She also had an 'alien' come & visit which the kids loved.
The scopes there where the school's refurbished 114mm dob, my Celestron C5 & my Odyssey II, called the 'Cannon' by the crowd.
After pizza, & washing hands, a little talk to point out what we were to see & point out the Southern Cross & pointers & Scorpio. Wouldn't you know it, a satellite crossed through Scorpio as I was pointing it out! Wowed everyone. Briefly mentioned Alpha Centuri & the direction of the centre of the Milky Way.
A BIG, BIG THANK YOU to Peter Hickey for loaning his laser pointer,
. It proved invaluble in pointing out these features,
.
The 114 was trained on the Moon. Always a crowd pleaser. It was handled by my wife who was thrown into the deep end in using a scope & finder.
The C5 had Jupiter. Could only use it at 125X because seeing was poor, & the image still shimmered. Enough to make out some banding & the Galilean moons. I had her on its eq. mount & tracking. This little scope was the unsung hero. Not once did I have to recentre the image & the clamps were engaged firmly enough to handle the kids grabbing the EP.
And the Odyssey had the Jewel Box. May not be the brightest cluster, but it is in the Southren Cross, & the kids were asked to spot the 'Ruby' in it, surrounded by diamonds. At this age some kids still needed a little boost up by mum or dad to reach the EP even though we were using a ladder. No child was allowed to view through the Odyssey without a parent up the step ladder behind them.
I am really glad I did fit a second finder towards the tail end of the Odyssey as it allowed quick repointing if the scope was nudged without needing to go up the ladder. I definately will be using this feature on the remodelling of the Odyssey. This is something I would recommend to anyone who is
showing the
sky with a big scope to crowds. If your scope does not have a tracking device, including DSC, or if its finder is not accessible from the opposite side from where it is located, this second finder works a charm. Saves an aweful lot of time & inconvinience to everyone. The finder I was using here was a modest 6X30. Enough to spot the Jewel Box.
Oh, & the ISS made a biref appearance too.
The main thing I would suggest to anyone
showing young people things through a telescope is the technique of using one hand to cover one eye, & the other hand to hold onto the step ladder, or mum or dad. Not garanteed to stop them grabbing the EP, but really helps.
I thank everyone who has contributed ideas in this posting. The resulting show was good for all ages, young & old. Keeping it simple is the key. The
sky is a big place & there is alot to take in in an unfamiliar enviroment for novices. The time at the three scopes was about an 1.5hrs. Not much time it would seem, but with so many little childern at that time of night, when the things to see were seen, they went home. It was 8:45 pm when the last few guests left. And the last couple of people were treated to Alpha Centuri & a cranked up view of the Moon through the Odyssey.
A really top night & experience,
.
