Cape Town Star Party

[strayring]

Hi all, I shall be joining a star party/outreach with these fine folk at Paarl about 50km from Cape Town tomorrow night.

First time I will be taking my scope with, I hope I'm up to showing public the right things. I think I will target 47Tucanae its the most impressive object at the moment I think, but I'm sure I will be able to get advice from some very experienced people. Looking forward to an interesting night!

Cheers, Ray.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @strayring and welcome to SGL  and wishing you clear skies for the star-party from the northern hemisphere.

[Uplooker]

Hi Ray,

Good luck at your first SP. I am sure you will have a gas.

There are some very impressive scopes in that picture, is that from last year / SP?

Cant see signatures, what scope are you taking?

[strayring]

hi Ian, Yeah I need to fix my signature. My scope is an Orion XT8.

That is a photo from a previous star party. There are a couple of guys that work at the SALT South African Large Telescope  https://www.salt.ac.za/  will probably be there tomorrow night, should be interesting.

Whats worrying me a bit is I read some star party reports that say public viewers have difficulty with using dobs for the first time at these events.

Thanks, Ray

[Uplooker]

Not sure what they are specifically referring to but some people may not have grasped the knack of nudging a Dob. All down to practice and how smooth the bearings are.