As Societies, Clubs etc How often do you get out to meet your general public

[LunaSwift]

My local association, The Worthing Astronomers , arrange regular public viewing sessions , usually on Worthing seafront, which is always busy with promenaders, We try to arrange these sessions to co-inside with some astronomical event. ie the latest (tonight) The international observing of the Moon. 

It is surprising how many people stop and take a look through our telescopes, and enquire how easy it is to join a society, and how much it costs to get a reasonable set up. We have found that many people are really interested in star gazing and never envisaged how cheep it is to get into the hobby, Imaging apart that is, 

That said , why dont we as astronomers , not set up similar Public Viewing evenings in our local areas , and encourage more people to join us and enjoy our hobby. We also have regular dark Sky meets on the South Downs to enjoy imaging and viewing '

Graham

[Lorne]

The group I'm involved in are purely internet forum based, very casually run with observing sessions mostly arranged on the same night as clear forecasts allow - usually in remote dark sites well away from "the general public"

There are members of our group involved with the Edinburgh / Glasgow / Stirling astro socs all who arrange regular public events that are usually well attended on the day/ night but result in very few new members.

In saying that, we've had a few people turning up at our dark sites for meteor showers etc. who all seem to go away enthusiastic after getting a look through our scopes.

[cotterless45]

Our local group is excellent in the amount of energy given to enthusing newbies and getting youngsters interested,

http://www.roslistonastronomy.org.uk/

That's monthly, but hopefully more will be done on request from schools and other groups. Two of us help a local scouts group with their annual astronomy badge. I think it's worthwhile trying to get as many interested as possible.

I've been to 6 star parties and it is a great pleasure to get others involved and spread the news that there is a load of neat stuff above.

Hopefully star parties and societies should should open up to schools and groups with practical viewing and non stuffy talks or cliques.

If we don't do this astronomy will slowly decline with for instance the ending of S@N on the box.

Nick.

[Cjg]

My local society (Norwich) is active on outreach from about September to March / April. We run monthly talks over a Friday and Saturday night each month and mid week have usually at least one group visit each week.

We use a mixture of Facebook and twitter to reach out, as well as exhibiting at local STEM days and school science days too.

This month the speaker was a member who talked about his journey in astro photography. (Was shortlisted for the Astro Photographer of the year).

Our number of visitors is always higher when we have better weather; sadly, this weekend it was rubbish!.

This week our visitors were from an organisation that "rebelled" against the Women's Institute and set up on their own! Next week it's a local cub / scout group.

Chris

[S.A.M]

Wiltshire AS meet once a month at Lacock, normally 4th Friday of the month with the Saturday as a back up date is Friday is cloudy.  Members of the public are more than welcome to attend and view thru our scopes and ask any questions about scope set up and what to see in the night sky.

Peter

[ronin]

That said , why dont we as astronomers , not set up similar Public Viewing evenings in our local areas , and encourage more people to join us and enjoy our hobby.

Who is: we as astronomers ?

If you mean astro clubs then many seem to do public events as you have described by your club and others.

If you mean SGL then it is somewhat more difficult. Not easy for a person to hold an event in a town during the day and when/where asked where do you meet up what is the answer?

From the areas around me one has yet to manage a meet up in a pub after 18 months never mind a meet up at somewhere dark to observe.

To their probable hard work and perseverance the one SGL group I know of that does meet up is the Essex Cloud Dodgers, aware of none in Herts, Beds, Cambs, nor Suffolk and Norfolk although they are further afield and I do not read their group info as much.

One thing I have realised it that the statement: "Lets arrange X", takes a lot of arranging.

If 6 people say they will turn up to help expect 3 or just 2.

I know of more then one club outreach event, for a large club, that has been cancelled because none of the several people that had said they would help have turned up.

One club around me emails people that have put their name down to help, about 30 on the list, usually 5 or 6 appear.

[nytecam]

I've done the outreach bit in the past with my Society for many year but now I'm rather selfish and hog my free time and loving it as I delve ever deeper into the deepsky.  From experience at my Society most members are lost after a dozen bright lollypop DSOs [Orion Neb Dumbbell Ring Whirlpool Crab Hercules glob Andromeda gxy etc] but I need more

[glappkaeft]

My local astronomy club, Uppsala Amateur Astronomers (uaa.nu, the gallery is in English, the rest in Swedish), hosts regular outreach events every clear Tuesday at the old Uppsala observatory during the dark season (with a gap around Christmas and the new year resulting in about 20-25 scheduled events per year). On top of that we also do special events (showpiece comets, during the astronomy year we did an all-out effort during the 100 hours of astronomy event, yearly efforts during the Uppsala Culture night, Venus/Mercury transits, etc.) as well as some (time permitting) private events for organisations and school classes.