An inpromptu star party

[DRT]

My sister lives in Edinburgh very close to the promenade at Portobello and has always had a passing interest in the bright shiny things in the sky. I visited her this weekend and brought the CPC1100 with me. Last night at about 9pm I set it up on the Prom to let her have her first close-up look at Jupiter and Mars. What followed was a long procession of curious people asking if they could have a look. It was great to hear so many gasps of "wow!" as they passed by the eyepiece one by one.

If you ever get the chance to do this in a safe place it is a worthwhile exercise, particularly if there are a few kids around.

I was very surprised at how many people were interested enough to approach a complete stranger and ask for a look. Perhaps we are not so unusual and geeky after all

[Kirscovitch]

Excellent report. It is a great feeling when you can get people to open their eyes a little bit more and look at the night sky in different way. Even more so with kids. My girlfriend teaches first grade and is trying to setup a night after it warms a bit more to have me bring my scope to school and have her class and family members come down to take a peek through my scope. I love the wows of little kids when they can see the moon close. My 2 children like looking through my scopes but they could care less about other planets and galaxies. They always want to see the moon. 

[cotterless45]

It's great fun to do. At our last event so many people had not looked through a decent scope. To see the amazement at seeing the Moon, planets, galaxies and clusters is just inspiring. If you get the chance then share the views !

Nick.

[Peter Drew]

We had our usual Saturday night star party at the Astronomy Centre. Good clear night until 12.00pm albeit a bit windy. Several family groups with kids who were on school holiday and could stay up late. Good views of Jupiter and Mars with two 16" SCTs and the 8.8" refractor. Highlights for me were being able to repair back to useable condition a 10" Schmidt-Newtonian that had fallen off the owners mount causing severe damage to the tube but thankfully, and unbelievably, no optical damage, and also a good hands and eye on a ES 12" lightweight Dob. It was its first light outing and was out of collimation on assembly but easily sorted thanks to the accessible adjusters. The optics seemed well corrected with just a very small amount of astigmatism. Images of Jupiter and Mars were detailed and contrasty. All in all an excellent telescope for the price.