Public star party June 1

[Kingofthehill]

Greetings all,

As you veteran eyepiece-people know, when holding a star party for the general public one must choose targets for the group that agree with their experience/abilities. Some favorites are Jupiter, Saturn, our Moon, M31, M13, M57, etc. Big, bright objects that are not likely to be mistaken, or objects that are just odd enough to elicit a "Hey, I saw it and then it disappeared" (M57). Things we'd go look for, really faint fuzzies, are generally not of much use--you usually can't tell if anyone in the group has actually seen it. Especially when they're trying to find the object with a wide-field eyepiece and a non-tracking telescope.
After finding the usual objects, M81, M82, M51, M57, M13, M92, M3, M5, etc... I searched for a few others I thought the crew would like.
The Stargate Cluster, STF 1659 is an instant success, in fact it turned out to be the favorite of a group of eight visitors.
NGC 4435 and NGC 4438, The Eyes, were also approved.
NGC 4754, The Paper Kite Galaxy, elicited oohs and aahs. It looks like a longer, skinnier M82.
NGC 4559, The Koi Fish Galaxy, presented itself nicely and two observers said they saw its tail.
All were pleased and left with the good-night-of-astronomy-taste in their mouths.
That's all.

[bladekeeper]

Sounds like a great evening, Paul!

[JayTee]

Hi Paul,

To me, outreach is always fun. Nice work. Sometimes though it can take a bit of "coaching" to get the viewer "dialed-in" to actually seeing what's in the EP.

Here's a graphic I keep at the ready (on my smartphone), just in case to show folks this effect. It shows the difference between looking on-axis vs off-axis through an EP. So when someone says, "I can't see it." and it is plainly in the FOV, I break out this graphic. About 50% of the time it fixes the problem, especially with younger viewers.


Cheers,
JT

[Kingofthehill]

Hi Paul,

To me, outreach is always fun. Nice work. Sometimes though it can take a bit of "coaching" to get the viewer "dialed-in" to actually seeing what's in the EP.

Here's a graphic I keep at the ready (on my smartphone), just in case to show folks this effect. It shows the difference between looking on-axis vs off-axis through an EP. So when someone says, "I can't see it." and it is plainly in the FOV, I break out this graphic. About 50% of the time it fixes the problem, especially with younger viewers.


Cheers,
JT

Yes, I have re-positioned a few heads. Some of it is understandable. If they had just been looking through a different scope with a 45* eyepiece and then come to mine, which is straight through (and it's dark out) I can see there might be an issue.

[SkyHiker]

Hi Paul,

To me, outreach is always fun. Nice work. Sometimes though it can take a bit of "coaching" to get the viewer "dialed-in" to actually seeing what's in the EP.

Here's a graphic I keep at the ready (on my smartphone), just in case to show folks this effect. It shows the difference between looking on-axis vs off-axis through an EP. So when someone says, "I can't see it." and it is plainly in the FOV, I break out this graphic. About 50% of the time it fixes the problem, especially with younger viewers.


Cheers,
JT

Uhm... sorry but that graphic makes no sense at all, the light does not follow the path shown.

[Bigzmey]

Well done Paul! Easiness does not make them less beautiful.

[Kanadalainen]

Greetings all,

As you veteran eyepiece-people know, when holding a star party for the general public one must choose targets for the group that agree with their experience/abilities. Some favorites are Jupiter, Saturn, our Moon, M31, M13, M57, etc. Big, bright objects that are not likely to be mistaken, or objects that are just odd enough to elicit a "Hey, I saw it and then it disappeared" (M57). Things we'd go look for, really faint fuzzies, are generally not of much use--you usually can't tell if anyone in the group has actually seen it. Especially when they're trying to find the object with a wide-field eyepiece and a non-tracking telescope.
After finding the usual objects, M81, M82, M51, M57, M13, M92, M3, M5, etc... I searched for a few others I thought the crew would like.
The Stargate Cluster, STF 1659 is an instant success, in fact it turned out to be the favorite of a group of eight visitors.
NGC 4435 and NGC 4438, The Eyes, were also approved.
NGC 4754, The Paper Kite Galaxy, elicited oohs and aahs. It looks like a longer, skinnier M82.
NGC 4559, The Koi Fish Galaxy, presented itself nicely and two observers said they saw its tail.
All were pleased and left with the good-night-of-astronomy-taste in their mouths.
That's all.

Thanks Paul for this terrific post, very useful!

Ian