helped at the star talk night (Richmond Hill)

Earlier, I had decided to just leave the Sony voice recorder running. Capture the whole evening! A spin-off would be that I could capture people's reactions. I love what people say...

7:45 PM. Walking to and from the parking lot, I saw Shawn L arrive. Nicole and Gilles G were just ahead of me. Others were arriving. To volunteer, help, run the show, herd, speak, explain, demonstrate. And slowly people, guests, visitors started to arrive. Getting ready for The DDO Show.

Tom hadn't brought a 'scope. I suggested he could fly the other Dob. We could fetch it once someone unlocked the dome. I aimed the 12½ to the Moon. Which, unfortunately, was still behind the trees.

Asked Rajesh S where north was: follow the path. Oh! That's easy. The walking path from the ellipse to the dome is parallel to north.

Karen M said she liked my astronomy chair. I told her that it was a Getgood design. Long gone. Which is a pity. He did great work.

She also thought the glow-in-the-dark stars were a nice touch. Thanks.

Byron C wondered what the wheelbarrow was for. Ha ha! The handles for the big Dob. Maia wondered where the Dob was from. A DDO 'scope. Made by Ian Wheelband, I shared.

Gilles liked my posted directions to the nova. "It's just up there," he laughed. Yep. Find the Dolphin and go up! Then turn left.

Tom and I retrieved the other Dob from the dome. Found it needed collimating too. Reminded him of my film tube collimator.

At last, I spotted the Moon in "my" Dob.

I found the Rigel finder was not working. Asked Paul Mortfield about spare batteries. He returned with a 3-pack of CR 2032 coins.

Spotted Lucy. Gave her the Starfest t-shirt. She put it on right away. Nice. I had my Starfest cap on.

I aligned the finder scope against the Celestron OTA using a distant tree.

Nicole and Gilles gave me a personal tour of the R.K. Dome. Amazing work. It looked beautiful. Impressive that he built the 110 VDC supply. Serious stuff. He also gave me a peek at the top dome. An even more challenging project...

Grabbed a couple bottles of water. Thanks!

Received glow-in-the-dark ties from Gilles. One wouldn't fit around my wrist. Karin chained two and suggested my neck. Nope. Big neck. I hooked into a belt loop. Thanks!

I found that the Sony recorder had died... Swapped out the weak battery.

8:29. I checked the little weather station. Humidity: 50%. Temperature: 17.7°C.

Chatted with Lucy about Starfest. She asked if it rained. Not much actually. Shared that, overall, it was great. Elaine and Tony were awesome. Lucy said she's gone once, 12 years ago, and it was hot and stormy.

We viewed the Moon. I offered the Dob to Nicole. Later I noted a neat crater, with two little baby craters inside it, equally sized. I wondered if it was Casatus. Tom spotted the weird elongated crater near the top (south) edge. I saw it later. That was Crater Schiller. It's 179 by 71 km. Weird. He pointed out Tycho near the top (in the field) and Copernicus (to the centre right). Told Tom I had noted Iridium last night. The far wall was lit while the floor was black. Very stark.

Shawn L found Saturn. With his SkyScout and binoculars. I kept scanning naked eye but could not spot it.

The mozzies were bad. My little Off! fan seemed to have little effect. And there was only one bat flying around!

8:43. Tom asked Paul again for the laser collimator. Paul kept getting distracted.

8:54. Looked at Saturn through Lucy's little Dob. Then found it naked eye, while standing behind her OTA. Walked to my 'scope, following it in the sky. Manually moved the Vixen mount, declutched, to the area. Then slewed with the GoToStar to the ringed planet. Put the finder on it but it was not in the eyepiece. Briefly grabbed my low power eyepiece from the Dob. Panned. Finally found it. Focused. Spotted Titan.

Fixed the C8 finder scope alignment.

Paul drifted through. Reminded us to sign-in. I asked where the sheet was but he had drifted away. I suspected it was in the admin building.

Tom took a look in the C8. Titan to the bottom-right (4:00 o'clock position). Rhea, with the planet, and Titan, would form an equilateral triangle.

9:02. The seeing looked fair. I bumped the power to 222x with the Tele Vue 9mm Nagler. It was surprisingly good. Not too soft.

I remembered I was still not polar aligned. It was getting busy and I kept forgetting to do it. Warned viewers they might experience drifting.

Shawn and Tom looked at the Double Double in binoculars.

Saw some people at the Dob. I centred on the Moon for them. Super bright. "Oh, wow!"

Showed people Saturn in the SCT. We chatted about field orientation. Rotated in the Newtonian; flipped in the Schmidt.

A woman in the group talked Mizar and Alcor as an eye test. I moved the SCT to the area to show Mizar A and B. Dropped the power. "Oh my goodness. Ah!" The older woman gasped. "That's very cool. Very interesting."

Shawn helped people at the Dob. But he said, "Beware. You don't want to look at it too long."

Tom said he wasn't enjoying using the other Dobsonian. He couldn't use the Rigel finder. He's used to a Telrad I guess.

9:21. I started to do my official polar alignment. I found I was already on Polaris. Ha. How about that. I made a very slightly adjustment.

A woman dropped by. She had just viewed Saturn. She was "in awe."

Started the two star alignment with the GoToStar. Choose Albireo for the first star. I got a little confused with the sky orientation.

Shawn talked about the Moon in the Dob again. "It'll blind you if you stare at it too long."

Well. That was a little strong. It's very bright. Could use a density filter...

9:32. Continued the alignment. Figured out the sky. Closed in on Albireo.

Nudged the Dob again. Put it on the Moon for people. Assured viewers it was safe to view the Moon. A woman drew her son away, "It will hurt your eye." It's OK. Won't hurt you. Just very bright against the black sky.

Continued the alignment. Alphecca was the next suggested alignment star. Altair was too close. I choose Arcturus. Centred on Arcturus. Done. At last.

Shawn tried to charge my stars with his green laser. Ugh.

Slewed to Saturn. Bull's eye! Synced on the planet. Bumped the power on Saturn again. It was looking good.

I heard Sharmin C. But, a moment later, couldn't find her.

Helped people nudge the Dob to centre on the Moon. Helped a woman take a picture of the Moon with her smartphone. Helped a young couple. "Oh wow. Oh my God. This is by far the coolest."

Lucy popped by. They were looking at the nova. She was pleased that her 10mm eyepiece was working OK.

9:44. The Psion alarmed. Five minute warning for the International Space Station flyover.

9:48. A young man said, "That is so cool. That's Titan!" One minute warning to the ISS.

9:50. Space station rose over the trees to the north west. Six humans up there! It grew brighter near Cassiopeia. Suddenly had an idea. I run to the Dob and tracked the ISS. It was fast, stars zipping by! I could see panels and the main body. I watched it go into sunset. That was fun!

It was great having the SCT on Saturn, tracking. I could leave it alone. While I was helping with the Dob.

Talked for a while to a clever young boy. He knew a good amount of astronomy.

A man asked about Mars. Explained it was a morning planet right now. He thought he had seen it. I suggested, if it was bright white or beige, it was Jupiter. Mars would be left, lower, fainter, and orangey. He said he worked nights. So he'd look for it in the morning. He was excited.

I headed to the Ring Nebula. Was off a little bit.

A little girl asked me, "What are you looking at?" I told her about the Ring. An old star that blew up. She said, "Is it cool?" I agree! She took a look. "A green or grey thing." I asked her if it was a perfect circle. She didn't think so. She liked the name Messier 57 (M57).

A few of us talked about the colours. "Beautiful." And, "Whoa." Love that.

Explained how the ocular changes the magnification. Recommended different magnifications for different objects. Showed my case. And talked about the benefits of a doubler.

Lucy asked me to help a family with a small refractor. She thought it a low-quality department store 'scope. Nope. Nice. A SkyWatcher. She tuned up the finder scope. We looked at the Moon. And then I suggested Mizar. The little boy tried, was certain he had it, but he ended up on Alkaid. I helped them get to the double star. They enjoyed that. We talked about eyepieces. I suggested that that be the first thing to change. Lucy had a great idea. Keep the old eyepieces around. You don't have to worry about dropping them, etc.

Maia started flying the Dob. She showed the Andromeda galaxy to visitors. Then the Double Cluster. Loaned her my green laser.

10:51. A man was very impressed with the tracking feature of my setup. I checked the conditions. 71% and 15.5°C. Lucy headed out; had an early start.

I considered going to double γ (gamma) Delphini. I tried to find it by the hand controller. I wondered by the SAO number was. Felt a little lost without some software. And I had forgotten to pull out one of my atlases. Couldn't remember where gamma was... Didn't have an internet connection... Borrowed Brian's PSA. [ed: Need to make sure that the list printed from SkyTools has the J2000 coordinates.]

11:15. Slewed and the 'scope went in a weird direction. Aiming down! Started to wonder if I had mounted the OTA wrong. I had installed the tube on the mount with the motor on the east side and suddenly I thought that wrong. [ed: Forgetting that I've checked the axis scale at 90 on the west side before.] With considerable effort, remounted the OTA. And it was clearly wrong.

11:20. While Chris V watched, I tried a slew. Oh oh. That didn't work... I had it in the right orientation the first time. Doh! [eh: Some high contrast stickers, maybe?]

Five minute warning went off. I shared the details of the next station pass. WNW. A shortie. Low. Paul took people near the admin building. They saw it. It never rose over the trees for me.

11:24. While Maia was showing people Almach, Paul came by. Grounds were closing. Maia returned my laser. I pocketed it. She left shortly afterwards.

Paul packed up the 12.5" Dob. I pointed out the sock. Installed the lid. Retrieved my eyepiece. Apprised him of the collimation challenges. They hauled it to the dome.

Asked if anyone knew the SAO of γ Del. Or α (alpha). Saulocin? Chris provided the number: 106357. I forgot to sync. Finally got into the 'hood. The Dolphin. As Byron packed up, I readied for the next event.

It was good to help out. I like being under the David Dunlap Observatory dome, hearing it turn, rumbling along, the echo of voices within. It didn't seem as busy overall as other times. Did they have a sold out crowd this time? It was fun fixing and using the Dobsonian. It's a good 'scope (when configured correctly).