helped at oh 8 oh 8 oh 8 (Toronto)

I assisted at the Ontario Science Centre star party. We had a good turnout of RASC Toronto Centre members, despite conflicts with Starfest, a gaggle having gone up to the CAO, and iffy weather.

Hitched a ride to and fro with John B. Gave him some gas money.

I did not take my telescope offering instead to float about or fly one of the Science Centre 'scopes. Guy suggested we needed a floater so that's what I did. I took care, early on, of distributing name tags and making a list of the volunteers.

It was kind of liberating. Normally, you want to stay close to your gear. Footloose and fancy free. Whatever that means.

It also gave me a chance to try a lot of different 'scopes. I liked Isaac's Williams Optics refractor setup and Guy's Maksutov OTA.

The conditions were not bad with some scattered cloud. Jupiter was the "star" of the show. We also got good views of the Moon (although I missed the views of Lunar X!). Through breaks, members pointed to Albireo and ν (nu) Casseopeia. I encouraged Isaac to try for the Andromeda Galaxy. You could see it!

As usual, people (young and old) freaked out when I used the green laser... At one point, a young man asked me where I got mine and what I paid. He was pleased to inform me he got his on eBay for a tenth of what I paid. I asked him, "How many milliwatts?" Then I showed him, The Big Gun! It was very interesting running his 5mW and my 40mW side-by-each.

By the way, the replacement laser worked flawlessly.

I wore my new Soylent Green is People t-shirt!