How to get that wow factor

[jnb]

I did a public observing session at the weekend. A dozen or so of us from my astro society showing the public our scopes and a few bits and pieces while a guy from the observatory gives a couple of talks. So we've a range of scopes there from 3" refractors to 12" newts pointing at various targets but what got the biggest wow factor? Members of the public picking up a pair of 15x70s that I had brought along and looking at the Pleiades!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Pleiades are very nice indeed, and I suppose the fact that you could see them so well in a "mere" pair of binoculars is what surprised people. When available, M42 gets a lot of WOWs when seen through a big scope. Maybe the wows are less pronounced because people expect a big scope to give them amazing images.