saturn wows kids

[algol]

Was on the front last night with the scope, casually observing saturn in the twilighty murk when I heard a voice asking what I was doing.

I looked up and a group of four kids about secondary School age were watching me, when I told them I was looking at saturn they couldn't believe it, they asked for a look. I had to get the little step ladder out so they could see in eyepiece.

They were stunned, we must have spent about twenty minutes with me keep adjusting scope to get saturn back in view and them getting on the ladder to see it.

They were very grateful and as they walked off home up the front I could hear them all talking excitedly about the rings and one of them was convinced they'd seen A moon, rhea or titan I think.

Nice to see that kind of reaction.

[TiTanecd]

That's great, always nice show as many people the wonders of the sky.

I'm actually going to bring my scope to my bro's school for a solar project.

[dick_dangerous]

Great story - I had a similar encounter with a bunch of teenagers in the park and also wowed them with Saturn. Being able to show people something beyond their sphere of experience is one of the joys of Astronomy.

It should be noted that when they stumbled on me I was looking at M9, so I swung the 'scope around for them - you have to pick your targets with these things. I still my wife's underwhelmed reaction when she saw M31 for the first time.

DD

[algol]

Yeah I find saturn jupiter and albireo the best in my limited aperture scope

[cotterless45]

Saturn's great for kids. It looks just like a planet should !

Plenty targets here,

http://skymaps.com

Nick.