What to show beginners tonight?

[rockystar]

Tonight is the second meeting of our astronomy group. There's a good chance it'll be clear and a good chance there v will be a lot of newbies hoping to be shown something exciting. 

Viewing will be between 8-9, so it won't be very dark and there is a full moon.  It's also close to Manchester, so pretty light polluted  ( though according to the Dark Sky society, it would qualify as you can see the 7 main stars of Orion).

With this in mind, I was after a few suggestions of some interesting objects, after The Moon, Saturn (if it's not dropped behind the trees), maybe M31 & M57. Iota Cas, Albireo & Almach will also be on the menu. 

[cuivenion]

If you can start a bit earlier the ISS is making a pass tonight:

http://clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52

[domstar]

Don't forget the double cluster if it's high enough. Maybe the great cluster in Hercules might just be ok (maybe not)

[rockystar]

 We got the ISS and another heading through Lyra. Good shout on m13

[kev100]

Hiya, I was looking at the double double last night, really nice viewing. M13 was a bit washed out, but definitely seeable ... And M57 was surprisingly clear.

[Littleguy80]

I had a short session with my 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son. We looked at Saturn, Andromeda (they both saw M32 when I pointed it out), Owl Cluster(NGC 457) and the Double Cluster. To my surprise the Owl Cluster was the favourite. The inverted image in my reflector helped with seeing it as an owl. My daughter likes the Double Cluster too. I was surprised that Andromeda didn’t get more love. They’d both seen Saturn before which is always a hit. Also showed them M11 which got some interest. 

[rockystar]

The double cluster was a bit of a hit, but there was a big queue for the scopes pointed at the moon - it was a behind a tree for me and I couldn't be bothered to move it. 

It was a nice evening though

 

[Buzzard75]

We keep our meetings separate from our viewings. We hold our meetings in the middle of the week in the evening (first Wednesday of the month) and then all our viewings are on the weekends, pretty much every weekend, in different places around the area to give us the most public exposure. We're able to accomplish the business of the club without having to worry about getting some place else to setup scopes for public viewing. Meetings are public, but only core club members typically show up and it makes things run a bit smoother.

As for what to view, depends on light pollution for me. I'm more of a nebula and galaxy guy, but I can only see those at the dark site. If I can't see those, I'll look for clusters, double, triple, and quad stars, and maybe some of the brighter nebula like M57. That's a really good one to show beginners and can be seen in just about any sky condition except cloudy. It's very bright.

[rockystar]

They've always run their meetings as an open group, and never taken membership - I've only been going for a couple of years, but the club has been going for about 12 years. They tend to do a talk in the first hour, have a cup of tea and biscuits and then if it's clear have some scopes out on the patio for people to view through. It woks well and is always well attended, i think there was about 80 people there last night. You see the same 20 or faces every week and then lots of people coming and going from week to week.

The good thing with always having new people is that, the same old thing for me, is something new and exciting for them. The double cluster seems to be a winner, as it's lots of stars bunched closely together. M31 is often a let down for people (expectations and all that), i can get some hooked in with the facts about how far away it is.

And i find that more people will flock to the 4" refractor on a tripod over my 8" dob.