Sidewalk astronomy at the library

Westlake (Ohio) Porter Public Library requested a sidewalk astronomy event to take place during their Customer Appreciation Week. We were only too happy to oblige. After dicey late-afternoon cloud cover the sky cleared in time for setup at 7:30 and viewings from 8:00 to 9:15 off the sidewalk adjacent to the (brightly-lit) parking lot. Still a fellow astronomer (with an 8-inch SCT) and I (with my 6-inch refractor) showed curious visitors Jupiter, the Hercules Star Cluster (M13), the Ring Nebula (M57), and the great Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I was pleased at the performance of my scope's electronics for, after eyeballing polar alignment and a one-star computer alignment, the scope tracked Jupiter exceptionally well and found M57 on the first try! No disconnects and good tracking all evening. The Ring was very difficult for most viewers to spot in the eyepiece but it was actually the best view I've had of it. M13 through the SCT was a beautiful sight, M31 was its usual fuzz-ball self but not bad at all, and Jupiter was best viewed shortly after sundown. Seeing was unsteady at lower angles and as the planet sank lower in the sky occasional good seeing ended and the planetary disk was unclear. The good moments revealed multiple cloud bands in addition to the two big equatorial belts so patient viewers got a good look. Closed up shop at the appointed hour and answered cosmological and planet detection questions from a very curious adult visitor. It was cold (lower 40s F.) so good to get indoors.

Big open night for the Moon

Saturday, Oct. 11 was a Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory. Another amazing turnout! I did my best to keep an accurate count but I'm afraid that with 135 clicks on my counter I still managed to miss some attendees at Saturday night's Public Night. The announced main subject was the Moon though we started out with views of Jupiter -- Jupiter was in clear air while the Moon was behind clouds -- at 7:30 (a full half-hour before official opening). Three of the Galilean satellites were on one side of the planetary body with number 4 not visible. When I learned it had emerged from the clouds, I swung the telescope over to the waxing gibbous Moon --90 percent of full-- and we stayed there all the rest of the night. The crowd was mostly adult, general public, with a smattering of students (maybe half a dozen). Many good questions about astronomy and the history of the observatory. The last visitors left at about 10:30 (official closing was 10:00) after getting a view of the Pleiades and a bevy of hot, young, blue stars.