Evening with the Astro Club

[rockystar]

Thursday night is HPAG (Heaton Park Astronomy Club) meeting night, and with the forecast looking like a clear evening, it was an opportunity to get the scopes out over the bowling greens, rather than being stuck inside just talking about looking at stars - I don't get to go as often as I would like, and I think this is only the 3rd time they've had an opportunity to host a viewing session this season.

So with permission approved from the wife, kids quickly put to bed and the car loaded up, off I went. The site is well clear of direct street lights, but unfortunately is a bit close to Manchester so the LP is pretty bad and nice high, bright half moon to boot.

I'm going to give one final shout to my decision to change from an EQ to a Dob and say that the ability to carry all of my gear from the car to viewing location in one trip confirmed that I made the right choice.

There were lots of people there, many of who don't own their own telescopes but had a real enthusiasm and intrigue to look at some of the wonders of the night sky and receive any knowledge and wisdom that could be imparted.

Many people had their scopes pointed at the moon, so I had quick look at Jupiter to make sure everything was looking good - very nice with 2 moons and 2 bands clearly visible. But again, plenty of Jupiter options, so I stuck in my 14mm Morpheus added a UHC filter and pointed it at the Orion nebula - this combination really helped to darken the sky and extended the nebula beyond what was visible without the filter. The low mag and 76° FOV really helped to keep it in the eyepiece for a reasonable enough time for a few people to have a look before having to re-adjust. 

My scope stayed pointing in that general direction while I helped a couple with their new telescope - first time out and making the mistakes that I think most of us made on the first outing: only taking off the 2" lens cap instead of the whole thing (immediately doubling their aperture), not tightening all the clutches on the EQ2 mount, not knowing how to balance the scope, which eyepiece to use; so knowledge imparted, up and running, nicely focused on the moon and a happy and grateful couple that might otherwise thought they had bought a duff scope.

A request to move back over to Jupiter now showed that another moon had appeared; Pleiades through the finder scope (always a better view than through the eyepiece in my opinion), and then over to Iota Orionis, a lovely triple (actually a quad, but you can't split the fourth one from the main star) with a nearby double in the same field of view. And quick look at M3 towards the end of the night (very faint, very fuzzy, no real detail).

Not many targets, but it was a great evening sharing the joy and enthusiasm of like minded individuals, and hopefully helping out a few people to make a more informed decision about telescope purchases.

[laudropb]

Nice report of a very worthy outreach session.

[John]

Very nice report !

I've only recently started to do these sorts of "outreach" events with my local astro society but I'm really enjoying them and sharing some views of the Universe.

I tend to have the largest aperture scope at our gatherings (12" dob) so I get the job of showing folks a few galaxies or other slightly more challenging DSO's. It's easy to forget how difficult it is for someone who has never viewed such things to see even a relatively bright galaxy through the eyepiece when you have been doing it for quite a few years

Most of the other folks at the events I go to have GOTO scopes and it's interesting to find that I'm up and running with my 12" dob about 2 minutes after unloading it from the car while the GOTO owners seem to need around 30 minutes or more to get setup.

You are also dead right that some advice from someone who knows one end of a scope from another can make a huge difference to those who have recently purchased scopes. The instruction manuals seem highly inadequate mostly and there are a number of aspects of scope setup and operation which are really not intuitive.

 

 

 

[rockystar]

I think I also persuaded someone to purchase a DOB over a smaller scope on an eq, and dissuaded someone from paying too much for a second hand - after telling him that for another £25 he could buy it brand new. It was a really nice evening and a buzz to show people who don't have the opportunity to look through a scope.

[andrew63]

What a great night for you all to be out observing, it's what it's all about.

 

 

andrew