Favourite Subject to Share

[scarp15]

Arranging an occasion observing session with family members or friends, perhaps impromptu during a period of clear sky or one that had been organised, whilst perhaps requiring quite a bit of effort to coordinate, can be a rewarding experience. 

A weekend trip to catch up with family members, was planned to coincide with a good lunar phase and the potential to enable others to look at the moon, planets and some deep sky objects from a suburban back garden. Routinely I take my 8" F6 dob.

On this occasion, there was much appreciation with a quite reasonable view of Saturn and Titan and good responses to many other subjects.

However one particular subject had perhaps the most impactful reaction. Later and to complete the tour, the Double Cluster in Perseus, was with my aging parents especially, a real hit. Naturally for this, I employed a x57, 1.75 degree field of view, Perseus was situated in a darker part of their skyline with mostly countryside and the Bowland hills in the distance. The compact intensive starfield, though not as magnificent as when observed at a dark sky location, was non the less an impressive visual sight. A must see subject for family based outreach.

When sharing with any family member(s) or friends, what subject and perhaps with whom do you consider gains most favour?

[Littleguy80]

Great post, Iain. Jupiter and Saturn have been popular with friends and family this summer. I find that the Owl cluster NGC457 is always popular with kids. The parents normally prefer it with it’s American designation of the ET cluster.  My Dad was particularly taken with M57 when he joined me at my local dark site one evening. M81 and M82 also made an impact that evening. My eldest daughter, like your parents, enjoyed the double cluster. 

[Littleguy80]

5 minutes ago, KevS said:

A friends son was particulary impressed by Saturn a while back. However and inevitably the double cluster and Pleiades seem to be firm favourites; dependent on the time of year and garage wall permitting M31 tends get some favourable reactions as well.  The main reaction nevertheless  seems to be the view of the sky in general  when viewed through a telescope; one particular chap said "are they there (the stars) all of the time?" Outreach at  it's best.

My Astro society has a public open night on Friday. An older lady had a look at M31 and was moved to tears. Seeing the Andromeda Galaxy was apparently something on her bucket list. Made me realise how much I take seeing some of these things for granted now. 

[Rob Sellent]

Nice post, Iain. Tragically, I haven't found the same enthusiasm as you guys. I think I must live in some backwater where main life interest revolves around either watching young men chase after balls or viewing TV 'reality' and gossip shows.

I think this little image sums the situation 😀

Edited September 9, 2019 by Rob Sellent

[Paz]

I've found quite a consistent pecking order for the wow factor when sharing views with non astronomers. That is moon first, then Saturn, then Jupiter. After that it's not so consistent but the easy dso's do well, like m13, m42, and the double cluster. I've sometimes tried showing more exotic things like tight doubles or galaxies that are just faint fuzzies and these have tended to be a flop relatively speaking.

[Nyctimene]

4 hours ago, Paz said:

I've found quite a consistent pecking order for the wow factor when sharing views with non astronomers. That is moon first, then Saturn, then Jupiter. After that it's not so consistent but the easy dso's do well, like m13, m42, and the double cluster.

Very congruent with my own list of showpieces. It's nice to demonstrate a sample of different celestial objects: moon, planets, open clusters (M 44/45; Owl cluster), globulars (always one on show), gaseous nebulas (M 42; North America nebula); Supernova remnants (M27/57; Veil). As galaxies go, M81/82 in the same field are always impressive (and different galaxy types). And don't forget double stars - Albireo; Alamach, Epsilon Lyrae. In winter, Omicron 2 Eridani (Keid) is a nice showpiece, as the triple system contains one of the easiest visible White Dwarfs. R Leporis ("Vampire star"), or La Superba as samples for coloured stars. When showing Albireo, I always ask, which colours the guest sees; then I lead over to star temperatures (glowing iron as a hint), then to the star's life cycle, and so on... So much to show!

Stephan