Should I take this setup to an astro meetup?

[badhex]

Hello all, 

I'm trying to figure out what to take to an astro meetup/public outreach event which will essentially be from late afternoon with solar observing, followed by some evening observing until about midnight. There is a dedicated area for scopes, and (as far as I can tell) I have a spot there.

The thinking is thus: I can only do solar with my ZS73 and not my TS102 (which is the scope I'd prefer to take) so I could take both scopes, a Scopetech mount zero, AZ-GTi, Gitzo 5 and then swap out the scopes and/or mounts as needed when it gets dark. This is a great and very portable option, but maybe not so sturdy if members of the public are involved. 

The other option is the below, which is way more/heavier stuff to take but is much much sturdier for public viewing, and allows me to set up the ZS73 for solar in the day and then dual mount in the evening, with the ZS73 as super widefield, and the TS102 as medium or high power on the same targets (alignment is not perfect but close enough for widefield) . I've thought about it but never actually used it in this way before and I reckon it will be fun, plus it looks mega cool. 

Thoughts? Is it a bit much? 

[Stu]

I would go for the dual rig. I’ve done similar in the past and it just gives more options. One could be showing widefield vs higher power views of the same object, but possibly more useful would be you keeping the target centred in the 73 so more people get to look through the 102.

Final comment? Get yourself a Herschel wedge to use in the 102 for solar! 👍👍

[badhex]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

I would go for the dual rig. I’ve done similar in the past and it just gives more options. One could be showing widefield vs higher power views of the same object, but possibly more useful would be you keeping the target centred in the 73 so more people get to look through the 102.

Final comment? Get yourself a Herschel wedge to use in the 102 for solar! 👍👍

Cheers Stu. Not a bad idea. I just spent some time trying to align it all a bit better and tweak the backlash, it's a lot better now. I'm certainly leaning this way. I've also got a finder which could theoretically go on the top mount and allow me to keep things centred as well, so as you say the Skytee gives lots of options. Plus it looks cool! 

Also don't tempt me with the Herschel, I have been thinking about one for a while! 

[JeremyS]

Depending on how many attendees and how disciplined they are (will you know this advance?), I’d go for a single scope rather than dual rig. Much easier to keep an eye on and control access, especially when solar is involved. 
 

Or single scope for Sun, then another scope for night, having put first away.

[badhex]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Depending on how many attendees and how disciplined they are (will you know this advance?), I’d go for a single scope rather than dual rig. Much easier to keep an eye on and control access, especially when solar is involved. 
 

Or single scope for Sun, then another scope for night, having put first away.

No clue on attendees nor discipline! If I did have the dual setup it's likely I wouldn't have both set up during the day, but the single mount setup would certainly be easier to transport. 

[Victor Boesen]

I would probably go for the dual mounted setup for a couple of reasons. Firstly, like you say, it looks awesome! I think the dual scope setup won't be too difficult to manage even with a large crowd/number of participants since all your equipment will be on one mount and you can easily keep an eye on people looking through the scopes. I plan to bring a similar setup to public outreaches with my Berlebach Castor II and my two fracs - eg. very similar scope sizes and etc.

I once brought two setups for an outreach at the city center of Copenhagen (At the town square right next to Tivoli - One of the most popular tourist attractions in Copenhagen and the start of this years Tour de France). We had upwards of 300 people stopping by in the 4 hours we were standing there.

My Evostar 72ED was mostly minding its own business on the Star Adventurer, but I was able to keep an eye on it for the majority of the time. With that said, had the Evostar been a slightly more expensive scope with a proper EQ5 or similar, I would probably not have brought it as I wouldn't feel comfortable with leaving it "alone". Another thing to consider is who you will be set up besides/with. I was joined by three other fellow amateurs that I know very well, so that was comforting to know that we each could have an eye out for each others equipment.

Finally, I was really happy I brought the Evostar 72 actually. It proved an important point for many people. Of course the majority went straight for the larger scopes, but those who stayed an gave the Evostar a change were very surprised with the view of the moon! Some even preferred it over all the other scopes there. So the ZS73 could certainly prove a great point, that is, a smaller scope can very often surprise!

Victor

[Stu]

I took this setup to a Stargazing Live event at Royal Holloway College in 2014. We only really looked at the Moon, but I had the refractor showing low power and the Mak at high power. Must have had a couple of hundred people through during the evening, looking through both scopes. Kept me busy keeping them centred but worked very well.

[badhex]

Nice setups both, thanks. Did you tend to find people were generally well behaved? I'd imagine that a good portion of people going to this event will be interested to some extent in astronomy anyway. 

My partner who is not an astronomer will be going and we decided that if I need to step away, she will keep an eye on things but we'll temporarily cap the scopes just to avoid any issues. As I understand it the area will have other people with scopes there too but I probably won't know them. There are a couple of people I know involved but they are part of the official planetarium/observatory group who are running the event.

[Stu]

If it’s an adult event then yes, people are very respectful and interested. I’ve done a few school events too and even then, the children have been well behaved at the scope, full of questions, even if they then go hooning around in the dark afterwards 😀.

Although there will be some pressure on you to get people through quickly, I find it is worth encouraging them to spend a little bit longer at the eyepiece to properly take in the view. There can be a temptation for just a very quick look which won’t be beneficial.

[JeremyS]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

well behaved at the scope, full of questions, even if they then go hooning around in the dark afterwards 

Isn’t that SGL’s mission statement? 😊

[Victor Boesen]

10 hours ago, badhex said:

Did you tend to find people were generally well behaved?

For the majority of the time, yes. Very well in fact. However, being a friday (or saturday, I don't remember exactly), there were of course also younger people hitting the clubs and bars in the area who then stopped by to have a look. Surprisingly, many of these people actually stayed and talked for a while. They seemed genuinely interested! With that said, we did experience about one or two cases of childish/foolish behavior in which case we kindly asked them to leave. But really, if you say that people joining the outreach most likely have an interest in astronomy in one way or the other, I don't think you should worry about having the same one or two bad examples like I did. Good thinking with your partner too! If I were in your place I'd feel perfectly safe to have both my scopes with me, especially if they're mounted together. I think you'll enjoy it very much! There's a certain joy of sharing the sky with others through your equipment

Victor

[Stu]

17 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Isn’t that SGL’s mission statement? 😊

Do you know I think it should be! 👍👍

[Stu]

Actually the sad thing I’ve found is that ‘elf and safety’ requirements have often led to lights being left on so people can see where they are going, which prevents good views of anything but the Moon and Planets. Would be good to give people torches, preferably red light ones and teach them how to live about safely in the dark. Obviously in some circumstances it’s not a factor (pavement observing in a town for instance), but if the skies are dark, it’s great to be able to show people a hint of what’s up there.

[badhex]

12 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

For the majority of the time, yes. Very well in fact. However, being a friday (or saturday, I don't remember exactly), there were of course also younger people hitting the clubs and bars in the area who then stopped by to have a look. Surprisingly, many of these people actually stayed and talked for a while. They seemed genuinely interested! With that said, we did experience about one or two cases of childish/foolish behavior in which case we kindly asked them to leave. But really, if you say that people joining the outreach most likely have an interest in astronomy in one way or the other, I don't think you should worry about having the same one or two bad examples like I did. Good thinking with your partner too! If I were in your place I'd feel perfectly safe to have both my scopes with me, especially if they're mounted together. I think you'll enjoy it very much! There's a certain joy of sharing the sky with others through your equipment

Victor

Thanks Victor, I think that the majority of people there should be pretty well behaved. Germans generally are in this kind of situation from my experience, especially the likely demographic, and the event is at the old Tempelhof Airport so its unlikely folks will just be stumbling in off the street so to speak. 

One concern was that whilst I obviously love the Gitzo/Zero setup, I feel like the Skytee might be better for none-astronomers due to being much studier; if someone grabs on to the part of the mount or scope, or misjudges how much pressure to put on the EP when viewing, the Skytee won't drift off target. 

I'm also a bit nervous about having to explain things in my rudimentary German - I might get a little badge or sign to say English is better.

Of course, I could just be overthinking all of this, as I could have misinterpreted the vague instructions from the organisation team and maybe I don't have a spot there at all! 

[badhex]

36 minutes ago, Stu said:

Actually the sad thing I’ve found is that ‘elf and safety’ requirements have often led to lights being left on so people can see where they are going, which prevents good views of anything but the Moon and Planets. Would be good to give people torches, preferably red light ones and teach them how to live about safely in the dark. Obviously in some circumstances it’s not a factor (pavement observing in a town for instance), but if the skies are dark, it’s great to be able to show people a hint of what’s up there.

With a combination of the nearly full moon plus Berlin skies, I suspect there won't be any issue with seeing in the "dark" 😅 but I will be taking my red light torch plus Celestron LiFePO4 which has a red floodlight just in case. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by badhex

[Peter Drew]

Yes, as already noted, keep the objective capped when not in use, youngsters have an irresistible urge to touch glass.  Also take decent but not your best eyepieces, they are prone to fingerprints and "lashings" of mascara.   Trust me, I'm an outreach veteran.    🙂

Edited August 9, 2022 by Peter Drew
typo

[bomberbaz]

cheap zoom eyepieces like the OVL are the way for outreach. Went to one recently and the first punter who was after a gander must have been rimmel's main customer. I wouldn't want that on my Nikon/TV glass.

[badhex]

Thanks Peter, Steve. I have a few BSTs and some other 'B-team' EPs, night make sense for me to take those then! 

[badhex]

On 07/08/2022 at 17:25, Stu said:

I would go for the dual rig. I’ve done similar in the past and it just gives more options. One could be showing widefield vs higher power views of the same object, but possibly more useful would be you keeping the target centred in the 73 so more people get to look through the 102.

Final comment? Get yourself a Herschel wedge to use in the 102 for solar! 👍👍

This is in the post and on its way to me... I blame you @Stu 😂

 

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, badhex said:

This is in the post and on its way to me... I blame you @Stu 😂

 

Excellent. I think you will like it 😀👍

[badhex]

The best laid plans 😭

Pretty much 100% cloud cover for the whole day so far and looks like it will continue into the night. It's been fine weather all week! 😭

Pretty annoying as I've spent quite a lot of time this week fine tuning the kit list and picking up extra bits and bobs. 

So we've gone from a pretty cool looking twin-cannon setup with dual solar observing capability, which I managed to pack down to this

To just the ZS73/Zero/Gitzo setup

I still have all the bits I need for a decent setup plus the herschel wedge and at least this way if it never clears up or worse, it rains, I can just pack up and be on my way. 

Oh well, at least I've learnt what works for next time when I can use the full setup. 

[badhex]

Just a quick update - it actually turned out pretty well in the end. Clouds meant that not a lot of actual astronomical observations were possible and we had to make do with Fernsehturm (Berlin's TV tower) some of the time, but there were still at least a couple of hundred folks stopping by to have a look and ask questions. I think I even got a few new SGL members! 

Will post a quick write up later with some photos. 

[RaspberryJamBerlin]

I am one the new members 😉 yeah when we left the moon started to peak out, still cloudy but was at least something to look at

[badhex]

18 minutes ago, RaspberryJamBerlin said:

I am one the new members 😉 yeah when we left the moon started to peak out, still cloudy but was at least something to look at

Hi James! Nice meeting you yesterday. Hope you and Cam had fun despite the clouds!