Mini outreach

[Bart]

A neighbour asked me to "sort out" a telescope for them. It was a cheap and nasty yolk and told him he was wasting his time with it. His little girl is showing an interest. I invited them around and after a couple of non starters this week with our fantastic Irish summer we finally got together. She is only quite young so they dropped over at 9:45.

I got the gso 10' out and showed Saturn. It was endearing to hear her surprise and excitement at seeing it. It wasn't properly dark so I showed albeiro as well. Really enjoyed it. I gave them my Bresser 90mm to mess around with for a few months and told her she can come around one night for some DSOs later in the year. She and her dad went home all excited. Quite enjoyable to hear the 'wows' and the excitement and wonder of youth.

Barry

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sounds like you all had a great night. Fair play to you for outreaching.

[cotterless45]

Share the views ! Going to be a lot easier for young ones and us crinklies when it's dark at 4.30!

Nick.

[estwing]

Sometimes a child's reaction gives the greatest of pleasure...well done Nicko.

[laudropb]

Well done. Outreach is so important to the future of our hobby. Apart from that it can be great fun and very satisfying.

[xtreemchaos]

great nights showing,i love to see kids faces when thay first see something.thanks for posting. charl.

[Bart]

Thanks all. Her dad probably won't thank me if she gets really interested, or should I say his wallet. Thing is though, her first view was through a 10', so the little Bresser might disappoint. She should be ok for planets and the moon though.

Barry

[Owmuchonomy]

Excellent stuff.  Taking the point of darkness, or lack of it, i was fortunate enough to be able to show the 5 year old next door the Venus Jupiter conjunction in daylight.  http://owmuchonomy.weebly.com/observatory.html

[Bart]

Nice, well done

Barry

[Astro Imp]

Great to get the little ones excited. Some time ago I showed my young neighbour (she's nine) the moon and her first words were"It's got holes in it", then we went on to Jupiter and it's moons and explained what she was seeing, I really enjoyed the evening sharing with her.