Impressing Mammy and Daddy

[Bart]

Hi All.

Just visited my in laws and my own parents. New to astronomy. Packed up scope for journey to parents 3h away. Clouds opened and got approx 45 mins of great seeiing. Enough to show 72 yr young parents pretty good views of Saturn. Lots of oohs and aahs. Quite enjoyable. Anybody had similar experiences of enlightening?

[Gweedo]

Yes, when I dragged my neighbours out to look at the moon.

I mean, everyone's seen the moon, but hardly anyone has has a close up look and seen craters and valleys in any sort of detail. I had a hard job getting them off the scope!

[angusb1]

I've shown a few people Saturn and Jupiter, one of them has since gone and bought binoculars and I now have someone to go observing with. The satisfaction of showing someone something so wonderful and seeing them experience what you did the first time you saw it is really great to me.

[Doc]

Must have been a wonderful moment.

When I take my scope to star parties I very rarely have time to use it, there's always a queue of people waiting.

[Skills]

My wife is difficult to impress (astronomy-wise...) but I got an 'ooh aah' when I dragged her out in the cold to show her Saturn. Wowing other people is just so great!

Adrian

[eriwig]

My father-in-law (who is not really into anything to do with science, space etc) came out to make fun of me standing in the freezing cold at night when I got my first scope at Christmas but all it took was one glance through my EP at the moon and he is hooked!

He is bragging about it to all his friends (one of the most amazing things he has seen in his life) and I now have to phone him when it is clear at our house so he can bring people round to look!

I think its hard for even the (supposed) least interested people to not be blown away when they see things for themselves. Doesn't mean they are going to take up the hobby themselves but it at least gives them an insight into why we put ourselves through the freezing cold standing outside all night!