Report - Observing an impact with Jupiter, (making lemonade)

[Tim]

The other night at work, life threw us lemons. Due to a cock up, we had to stay behind for a few hours. Becky and Andy from the Café were there, begrudgingly, as they revealed it was their first wedding anniversary and they were supposed to be enjoying a romantic meal for two.

In line with the old saying I decided to make lemonade. I nipped home and grabbed an AZ mount, and my C11 EdgeHD and a 10 mm Delos eyepiece.  Back at work I secretly set the telescope up, with some difficulty having forgotten the finderscope, but eventually got Jupiter in the eyepiece as the mount tracked it nicely.

I called Becky and Andy outside. After apologising for not getting them a card or gift for their anniversary, I said "perhaps I can make it up to you with your first ever viewing of Jupiter, a first for your first anniversary".

In the C11 Jupiter looked pretty awesome, and as luck would have it Ganymede was passing right in front at that moment, leaving a clear shadow on the surface. Becky struggled to see the shadow, but using the Stellarium app I was able to illustrate the appearance, and she seemed to pinpoint it then. They were all smiles, which was great.

As for the impact, the next day Becky told me that when she went back into the Café after observing Jupiter, she spontaneously burst into tears, it just felt so emotional.

I love it when we can share our gear with absolute newcomers to astronomy, and this was an especially good outcome. 

Hoping for more tomorrow at work as I am setting up a 6" refractor and AZ mount to observe the Mercury transit just outside the Café.

Have any of you guys had similar experiences, good or bad when sharing a view? Would like to hear about them

Cheers

Tim

[Beulah]

Tim, that is an amazing story, thank you.

We sometimes take the wonders of the night sky for granted, getting het up about the finer details...larger scopes, better eyepieces... It would be fantastic to get that simple awe back again.

Maybe the lesson you are inadvertently teaching here is that sometimes it's good to share with others...I got a real thrill sharing night sky targets with people at astronomy meetings.