Mars strikes again!

What a night! Thanks to a Page 1 story in the Ravenna Record-Courier about Mars with references to our January 12 Open Night, more than 184 visitors looked through the old scope!!! There was a line of people literally out to the street! Of course the disappointing reality of Mars observation presented most folk with a small featureless pale disk in the eyepiece --the night's sky was clear, but seeing was fair to poor-- still, there was a lot of excitement and interest. Many assorted questions about the telescope, the Observatory, Mars, and astronomy. If you were good and lucky you could see a hint of shadow within the disk representing surface markings. That's the mystique of Mars for you: lots of interest and potential disappointment! I'd wanted to show off other objects but had to stay fixed on Mars until just before 10 PM. I was able to give the last group a look at the Orion Nebula which was spectacular before clouds finally began to close in. I'd printed 10 star charts as hand-outs before driving out to Hiram ... I didn't want to print too many! Yeah... 184+ visitors! I still can't believe it.