A Great Night With Kids - And Adults

[Skylook123]

We set up a telescope for the ninth Halloween in front of our house, and it might have been the best.

Great night! I just barely got set up when the first of our ghosts, ghouls, gobblins, and assorted goonies wandered by. I had the 10" SCT/Atlas set up out in the cul-de-sac. I had a plan to set up the 18" straight vertical with a couple of skeletons hanging from it, but ran out of time.

Susan had her usual bowl of trinkets - electronic flashing rings this time. We gave out 130 of the rings, so my guess with having two adults for every three young folks was well over 200 come by in about two hours. It was, at times, like busy night at Grand Canyon Star Party.

I intended to go to The Owl/Bat, NGC457, never got the chance! Our first customers were the next door neighbors on their way out for their goody run. It was still somewhat twilight, with only The Moon and Jupiter available. so after setting up I went to the Moon to check the GOTO. It was higher in the west than Jupiter was in the east, so for the eyepiece to be at a convenient height for the younger visitors I chose the Moon to start. The two adults and two kids from next door were alone, no one else out yet, so I slewed over to Jupiter and even down in the muck of low elevation, it was spectacular all night! Never moved from it for the next two hours.

What a great show! More enthusiasm than I can recall, and that is saying a lot. Not a single issue with "can't see it", SO many thanks for doing this each year, and Susan's choice of the flashing light rings again for this year continuously drew raves. I was surprised that even the youngest toddlers were able to detect the image, and at that age the stripes on Jupiter get 'em better than the Owl. Jupiter was rising over the bright city lights of Tucson, so it was all by itself like an airplane landing light or a police helicopter with a searchlight.

I don't think I've EVER had a crowd so collectively excited at the telescope. Maybe they were already on a sugar high.

The one minor down side was that Susan was set up with the rings in front of the garage, and had a Flogging Molly CD playing in her car for background. She inadvertently had the key ON instead of ACCESORY so, in two hours, her battery was dead. I just used my backup power supply to start the car and recharge.

Highlight for me was a combination of a couple of events. First, near the end, at least four different parents came back to thank us for doing this every year, saying it always is the feature attraction of our development area. Right up there was two separate elementary school teachers who took down the name of our club's web site so they could schedule an outreach event for their school. They were both new to teaching, and never thought that a telescope could awaken the curiosity in the kids so strongly. As I was packing up around 8PM, I heard the tiny stragglers on the main street shouting "We saw Jupiter!" and "We did too - wasn't it GREAT?"

I agree!

[ecosse]

Sounds like everyone had a great night:D that's what it's all about!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Sounds great! A different kind of treat!

[red dwalf]

What a great idea, wish I wad there, sounds like you had good fun

[Skylook123]

Yes, sugar-free eye candy!

[m_j_lyons]

Sounds like a great time - as I was walking my ninja and astronaut (and 5 of their ghastly friends) around the neighborhood trolling for sugar I made sure and pointed out the king of the planets hanging in the sky. Didn't quite solicite the same response you received though. Kudos on the outreach.

[Skylook123]

You showed them one could look up and see something special without a telescope! Somewhat empowering, if repeated often.

Jupiter was certainly sugar-free, fat-free, consumption. If we could find a way to add fiber, it would be nature's perfect treat!