Outreach tips?

[FenlandPaul]

So I've finally got round to publishing a date for the first outreach evening / public scope viewing in my village - Gazing on the Green as I've called it.  Sunday 10 April sure better be a clear night.

I've been trying to think how to do it, what to say and what to show.  I guess because it's just me that I need to keep it simple.  Initial thoughts are:

• Quick constellation tour, with some star name myths, "what shapes can you make out?" and some comparisons of distances etc.  Will need to get a low power green laser pointer for this.  Very aware of the need for safety while using one.
• Moon - will be a nice waxing crescent in the south west so will start easy, probably in the AR127L and simultaneously in the bins
• Jupiter - moons should be nicely spread out that night.  Not sure what the GRS is doing.
• M44 / Praesepe.  In the latest article I did for the village newspaper I wrote about this, so would be good to show people either in the bins or in the ST150 at low power.  I guess people would prefer to look through a telescope because it feels more special?
• A bright galaxy or two, ideally in the dob.  Maybe M81/82 or the Leo Triplet for the nice visual contrast.  I'm aware it can be hard to spot these things first time for people not used to squinting through an eyepiece - what have others done in these occasions?

I would really welcome any other ideas.  I will be asking people to e-mail me beforehand so I have an idea of numbers and to make sure things don't get out of hand (nice problem to have I suppose!).  This will also mean I can cancel it in the very unlikely event of cloud on the night.

Anyone in the vicinity of Over, Cambridgeshire on that night would be more than welcome to come along and correct my factual errors / provide moral support!!

Best

Paul

 

[barkis]

Do you have help with this project Paul ? You should have an indication of the numbers likely to attend, so
preparing your workflow might be easier.  The telescope will be popular, and it might help if you had two or three manned if possible.
People do like to compare a naked eye view, with a telescopic one, especially open clusters, and double stars. 
 

I've attached a Starry Night view of the Southern Night sky  In Cambridge at 1800hrs April 10th A few labels may be of help. I hope so, but I'm sure you will have prepared well anyway.
I hope you have a successful event, It's always a bit nerve wracking, but once you are underway, you'll be fine.

 

[Stu]

Sounds great Paul, hope you are lucky with the weather.

I would say, have some activities to keep people happy whilst not being able to use a scope. Get them to bring along binoculars, print out some hand outs so they can try to identify constellations, Jupiter etc themselves. The Skymap .pdfs are quite handy for this

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

http://www.skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn1603.pdf

Red light torches/etiquette tips?

Make sure adults are managing any children properly with activities

Hope that helps!

[reddoss]

If you have small children attending who can't quite reach the eye piece, take along a small step ladder. It should be one which they can grab hold of with both hands, otherwise they tend to try and steady themselves by grabbing hold of the scope. 

[Owmuchonomy]

I've not committed to this type of thing yet outside my friend/neighbour circle but I have thought about it a lot.  I publish a monthly column on the village website for now.  I agree with some of the comments above, particularly number of possible attendees and keeping them all occupied, especially if it is poor weather. Red light etiquette as Stu says and for this my neighbour supplies the red bike lights luckily.  For my Fish and Chip gazing nights with friends I prepare a handout of the likely targets, cosmic distances, age etc.  I often feel I can always fall back on the Star life cycle, colours, luminosity, brightness, doubles etc.  I fished out two folks in the village who had beginner scopes on EQ mounts stashed in cupboards and did a surgery for them so they could get them working.  

Good luck, I think its great to share our knowledge with others.

[MattJenko]

From my outreach experiences, it is good to show some doubles, with different star colours, to show that they are not all white. Almach is one of the better ones when Albireo is not up. The double cluster is always a firm favourite too and nearly always available. Galaxies tend to be a little on the disappointing side I find, but another good cluster is the Owl (Caldwell 13) as it actually does look like an Owl!

[Astro Imp]

I can't offer any useful advice but wish you good luck with your event.

BTW let us know the outcome.

[ronin]

Not sure about the dobsonian, seen too many problems with people using one, they take a bit of learning. They have the habit of getting hold of it first, that knocks it off and then there is nothing in view. Can drive you mad.

May seem a bit antisocial but watch out for people wanting to put their phone to the eyepiece. What can happen is they then spend the next 10 minutes trying to get a picture and no-one else gets access to look through the scope. Just be prepared to step in and move them on.

What time is it on? You do not mention time and by April 10 the clocks have gone to BST. Suppose Over has at least a fairly low horizon.

Leo is South in April so that may be the one to base bits around.

[John]

I use my 12" dobsonian for outreach events with my local astro society. I really enjoy the events and the folks who turn up really enjoy the views !

My scope tends to be the largest aperture one at the events I've attended so far which means I tend to get allocated the fainter objects to show people

We generally get around 30-50 people turning up but we do have 6-8 scopes up and running of various shapes and sizes. After the introduction and brief constellation tour the attendees are broken into small groups and split up amongst the scopes. the groups gradually make their way from scope to scope and each of us have a couple of targets to show and a couple of reserve targets just in case.

We usually give a range of dates and only decide around 24 hours before on the evening that it will run on. If the run up to the event is cloudy then the numbers who show up can be reduced because many think it won't be on despite the fact that we are confident that it will clear during the observing session itself.

With the exception of M81 / 82 and M31 I've found galaxies challenging to show people who have little or no scope experience. Bright DSO's such as the Ring Nebula, the doube cluster, the brighter globulars seem to capture peoples imaginations along with coloured stars, and the Moon and the major planets of course. I don't use a moon filter myself for observing but I do have one on hand at outreach events in case anyone feels uncomfortable with the brightness.

Generally people do loose interest quite quickly if you need to spend time finding and object so preparation and confidence is needed. GOTO also helps although the members who use such scopes do seem to need a long time to set them up !

We have a "don't touch the scopes" rule which is explained during the introduction but that won't stop young and enthusiastic folks from grabbing the focuser or mount and hanging on. A small step is very useful to get some vertically challenged folks to the eyepiece.

Having some background info on the object in the eyepiece is really important but not too much otherwise folks get confused or loose interest.

Folks are pretty interested in the scope itself and you can often find you spend 5-10 minutes explaining it's basics to each group as they come around.

On eyepieces, I have invested in a few decent but reasonable eyepieces for these events. I've gone for eyepieces with wide eye lenses and long eye relief to make the process of observing as easy as possible. I don't find using high magnifications much use because tracking becomes an issue and some folks find looking into an eyepiece far from intuative.

After around 90 minutes we tend to find that folks are drifting off and we usually pack up after a couple of hours at most.

Very enjoyable events though and I hope yours goes well

[FenlandPaul]

Thanks for all the responses, guys.

@barkis, it's just me on my own for this one, so hoping numbers will be light.  I've tucked the advert for it away at the end of my article, so I figure it will be just those that are really interested this month.

@Stuhandouts are a good idea, particularly if people can then try and find their own thing while waiting for scope views.  I've asked everyone to email me before so I can gauge kids attendance and make sure adults have them under control etc.

 

[FenlandPaul]

@Owmuchonomy - love the fish and chip gazing evening idea!!  Brilliant.  Combining 2 (well, 3) of my favourite things.

@MattJenko - Alnach is a good choice - I was trying to think what double would be good.  Star colours is something I'm keen to show - Orion will be a bit low but I'll select some other nice contrasts.

@ronin - Yes, I think it will be quite challenging to prevent people from touching the dob, although John seems to have had a good experience so it might work.  Will definitely need steps for the youngsters.  I've provisionally said 8pm, which is just after sunset.  I might tweak nearer the time.  There's the crescent moon and Jupiter to play with for a whle.  Don't want it too late though, what with it being a school night and all.

@John - wow thanks for the comprehensive experience!  It sounds like yours are on a much larger scale than mine.  The background info is a good idea - I was thinking of making some notes on a few of the most likely objects.  I hadn't thought about people being interested in the scope itself, although I guess that's quite likely - when I did a school event last year during the eclipse, it was the parents beforehand who came up to ask about the array of scopes I had out.   

[Owmuchonomy]

Well, we are lucky because a Fish and Chip trailer comes to the village so I don't have to go far to get it. The other thing I have handy is a bowl of fruit.  It comes in useful for demonstrating and modelling phases of Venus/moon and the reason we enjoy seasons. I remember a cycling holiday in Majorca with my mates. During a beer stop some bright spark started describing orbital movement and seasonal variation. He was totally wrong so I grabbed a big bowl of oranges and laid it all out. Quite a crowd developed!

[baggywrinkle]

 

Lots of good target advise above.

Don't forget a set of steps so the wee ones don't have to use the OTA as a monkey bar to climb up.

If you need help PM me, I can bring along a scope or two....I will be in country on that date.

[StuartJPP]

Try to slip something in regarding light pollution if you can such as "We would be able to see the beautiful xxx nebula over there but the lights from the xxx prevents us seeing it properly"...if you have got a problem with LP that is.

Sometimes the young ones are the only ones that can change stubborn adults, some kids are more aware of recycling, wildlife etc. because they are taught it at school and the parents (usually) listen to their kids.

[ronin]

What happened ?

[FenlandPaul]

Hi Ronin

Thanks for following up!  Unfortunately I had to can it because of the clouds and, until this morning, relatively little response..  There have been a few gaps but not sufficient to keep people interested.  It was only today that I received e-mails from people wanting to come, and by then I was a little disheartened.

However I've managed to get the names of a few people in the village who seem genuinely interested in taking a look and learning more.  So I'm going to arrange to meet up with them individually to show them the scopes and for those that own their own to teach them how to use them.  There's also a "camp out" at the school later in May which I'll take the scope to so I cna show the kids (and big kid parents) Jupiter and maybe some other treats.

Will be trying to run it again in the Autumn.  At least then Saturn will be available at a sociable hour.

Best

Paul

[ronin]

It was clear on The Green up until 9:00, Jupiter looked good, there was the cresent moon and Arcturus was bright along with Procyon, Pollux and Castor. Leo was above Jupiter. Two other people appeared looking for you, lent them some binoculars for Jupiter. I guess the idea was to use the nice semi-circle of hard (tarmac/concrete) standing outside the pavillion (?).

Thought you might have been at the Community Centre on their field but not.

Bit weird seeing the embedded LED's illuminating each side of the pavement out of Swavesey towards the A14 but a good idea.