Recent Outreach event for our club

[Luna-tic]

I'm a member of Catawba Valley Astronomy Club; every year we go to a local holding of "National Night Out", a downtown event of live music, and  a chance to mingle and let the kids play, and meet the local services who care for the public (Rescue Squads, local law enforcement, fire department, etc.) The event is only a few miles from the club's base of operation, the Lucile Miller Observatory (more on that later) . The National Night Out event is not a prime location for astronomy, tons of ambient lights, especially once dark hits and the large portable floods get turned on, but we made do. We had a decent southern and western view, and since we set up around 6pm EDT, the Sun was still plenty high. We aimed a couple of filtered scopes and a set of filtered binoculars at the Sun for passers-by to view through. There was a string of sunspots to make it more interesting, and we had displays of photos taken of the recent solar eclipse here. We also had tables of hand-out literature on all aspects of astronomy for the masses, from pamphlets on light pollution and how to lessen it to star charts and getting started in astronomy and telescope types and selection. 

In one of the pictures below, you'll notice a reference to "Lucile Miller Observatory". Lucile Miller was a local high school science teacher in the 1960's and 1970's who eventually convinced (with lots of public support) the local school system to fund the construction of an astronomical observatory on the high school grounds. It was equipped with a rotating dome on top and a donated home-built (including the hand-ground mirror) 10" f/9.2 Newtonian telescope on a split-ring horseshoe mount. The observatory has been in operation since 1976. Read about it here:  http://catawbasky.org/lmo/lmostory.asp

As the skies darkened, we changed our aim to Saturn, and once it rose above the trees to the east, the almost-full Moon. I lost count of the people who came by, but was continually satisfied and amazed at the reactions of people who looked through our scopes to see what most had never seen except in commercial photographs. Our three main viewing scopes were a 5" f/5 refractor (home-built back in the '70s), a 8" f/5 Dobsonian reflector, and my C6 f/10 SCT. There was another 3" f/12 refractor and a set of 12x50 binoculars also set up.

I had kids from 5-15, young adults and elderly coming by for a glimpse of Saturn and the rings, and you could also see Titan. Total amazement on the faces of many, and one young lady of about 14 immediately took out her phone and started trying to get images through the EP. I suggested she shoot a video and then select a screen shot of the best image, and she got a great one. She also got images of the Moon in the big Dob. Not even 5 minutes into her first astronomical experience, and she was already an astrophotographer!

Here's a few pictures of our venue, and a couple of the observatory and some of the privately-owned telescopes. I got too busy from dusk onward to take picture of the visitors, regretfully; hope you enjoy these. We had live music just a few meters away, the "Fabulous Shakers", one of the better-known beach music groups. They've been around since the '60s

[Astro Imp]

Sounds like a great event. 

Whenever I show non enthusiasts the moon and the two gas giants always get the most reactions.

Thanks for posting.

[Paz]

Sounds like a great event. I also find  the moon, saturn, and Jupiter get the most wows, and probably in that order.