I just returned from the Stargazing on Pender Island event. For those who don't
know, this is a public astronomy event hosted by Parks Canada, on North Pender
Island. There are two more scheduled this summer, one on Mayne, and one on Saturna.
I arrived at Pender Islands Elementary School shortly after 8pm and met Sue, our
coordinator from Parks Canada. Already, there were a few people gathering,
carrying chairs and mats to sit on, anticipation plain to see on their faces
Clarice Bloomenthal, a storyteller, was preparing for her segment and the
Ptarmigan Society musicians were tuning up for their (wonderful!) musical
interludes.
I brought my W.O. Megrez 90 and SkyWatcher 102mm f/10 refractors,an EQ5 mount,
and Nikon 10x50's w. tripod. Other scopes on the field included a couple of
Celestron 60mm spotting scopes, a SkyWatcher Mak, a nice TeleVue apo (never did
find out who owned that), and one resident even lugged in a 8" Meade SCT.
As the number of visitors increased, Clarice began her stories of the night sky.
While she captivated the audience with that, I attempted to coordinate the
telescopes and their owners, and find out if they knew how to use their
equipment. Turns out, most didn't. So quick-and-dirty polar alignments were
done, the we aimed and focused them all, and it was time for my segment.
As the moon was very low in the sky and playing hide-and-seek in the treeline, I
began with a short intro and we went immediately into lunar viewing. From the "ooohs"
and "ahhhs" from our visitors, I'm guessing viewing the Moon through telescopes
was a rare treat for them. They were absolutely delighted. When they had had
their fill of lunar light, we gathered back up in front of the screen and I
bleated on for an hour or so about the RASC, and IYA, and about stars, planets,
galaxies, and so forth. We had a brief Q&A session at the end. The Mars Hoax was
the first question raised. <sigh>
Because the Moon was so bright and the sky so hazy, deep-sky viewing was out
of the question. But as it turned out, people wanted to spend more time with the
Moon, and Jupiter was well placed by that time as well. Those two objects were
more than enough to satisfy everyone's cravings in the time we had. Because I
had earlier babbled on about Jupiter's surface markings, and Galileo and the
Galilean moons of Jupiter, the crowd was fascinated that they could really see
the two prominent bands on the surface, and the four moons. I mean, really
fascinated. I get such a rush from the looks of wonder, and the delighted
comments of adults and children alike at times like this. And so the evening
went...a soft warm evening, people enjoying the views, underscored by some
excellent period music. Magic.
Well past the proposed ending time, the visitors began drifting off home. I hope
they were pleased with their evening.
As best as we could determine, we had at least 100 unique Galileo Moments.
Possibly more.
Sherry.
