I delivered the second presentation with night sky show (of two) for the Farmer's Pantry, south of Clarksburg. It too was very successful. 2 hits for 2 at bats. Great weather both events.
This time we looked at the Venus, ISS, constellations, bright stars, Mizar/Alcor, Mizar A and B, an Iridium flare, Albireo, Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, and an orange Moon rising above the apple orchard. We used Mark I eyeballs, my tripod mounted binoculars, illegal green laser, and my 8" SCT with dew heaters on full.
It was brillo (lucky) timing on my part. As I concluded my presentation, my alarm went off for an ISS flyover. I wisked everyone outside and they watched the 6 minute pass while I packed up our presentation gear.
Young girls, 3 or 4 teenagers, some parents. Everyone had a great time, I think. One woman made strange noises not unlike Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally while viewing the Moon.
Pete, very new member visiting the CAO, assisted me with set-up and tear-down. He didn't seem to mind getting roped in. He had fun at the eyepiece too.
Via the RASC Toronto Centre education listserv Yahoo!Group, I thanked Leslie, Diane, Tony, et. al. for helping with projection equipment, giveaway SkyNews magazines, Star Finders, etc.
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Forgot to do an alignment of the new finder scope. Fortunately, it was close. Found all my targets, including M57.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
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1 comment:
"strange noises not unlike Meg Ryan". Come on - astronomy isn't THAT exciting. Perhaps it was a cow in the distance. Is that what FP meant when they advertised "Blake and his AMAZING telescope"????
(Congrats on a great presentation).
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