You can only pick 1?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I judge how spectacular an object is by how much my teenage son swears when he sees it for the first time through my telescope.

The Beehive Cluster got a mild curse. Saturn got a bit of profanity. But, you should have heard him when he saw Jupiter!

So, you need a swearometer?

What would happen at a total solar eclipse? One dreads to think

[PortableAstronomer]

I'd say Saturn too, even though they will nearly always say "that tiny little thing", at least it bangs home the message that actually 'stargazers' don't actually look at (individual) stars. Although some have suggested the double-star Alberio for the nice contrast in colours.

When inviting others to look at Saturn, I usually balls it up though because I keep adding comments like "you're seeing Saturn as it was an hour ago because the light has taken an hour to reach us", before expanding onto the cosmic light-time scale of the Universe, by which point I get completely blank faces.

I guess a better question would be

a) what do you show? AND what do you say about it/what commentary do you add?

A good one I heard the other day was "can you imagine a city of a million Suns?" then point at M13... "it's very far away but let's see if we can make it out through the scope".

[Backscatter]

I have sort of performed this scenario for several friends and the neighbors, none who had ever viewed through a scope before (though, 1 friend was into astronomy programs and internet sites/images and space in general), albeit having them able to see more than one object in the viewing session.

The majority (all but 1) was awestruck with the ability to see the Andromeda Galaxy (not always the 1st object). This was not because of the better visual aspect, but more relating to the size and distance (age) the light had to travel (and other information provided by the hand controller). It really amazed them that they were seeing outside of our Galaxy. While Saturn and Jupiter were both visually more striking and better images, all were blown away with viewing Andromeda (it still gives me a chill when viewing it). The 1 other person was most impressed in seeing a satellite cross her field of view while see was looking at Vega (I think).

This was with an ETX 80, so we are not talking about an incredibly large or detailed view, but you could still see Andromeda’s oblong shape. I don’t think a globular formation would have made the same impact though (even with the supplied info). Second was Saturn by far, especially because of the rings.

With larger scopes in use, or a larger/different population of participants, the result might not be the same. I think it depends on the type of person viewing and if they can conceptually grasp the large distance and age aspects of things outside of even are solar system.

Anyway, if I have one shot and they are viewable, Andromeda for DSO and Saturn for local are the objects I show.

And if all else fails, Mrs Henderson @ number 15, though I think that is really pushing the limits of my scope.

[wackyscot]

Agrees with all the above, the MOON always does it for me and SATURN also. A nice crescent moon will have a real wow factor, as my brother in law commented, "hell, the planet's had a hard time, look at all the holes in it"

David