public viewing at fremont peak

I took Valerie out with me Saturday night to Fremont Peak, where there was a large public star party.  Around 60 local community college students were there to complete a lab assignment by viewing and taking notes on at least four objects.  Plus the usual visitors from the campgrounds around the Peak.  There were a lot of astronomers there to help out; all the pads were in use when we arrived, so we set up next to the observatory -- a bad spot, but ok for a public night.

As it grew dark Valerie showed Jupiter to the visitors and could find it by herself in her "baby blue" 6-inch f/4.  Prior in the week I attached screw-on stool legs to the bottom of the base, so the telescope was brought up to her eye level.  I started showing Mizar, the middle star of the handle of the Big Dipper, which is a double star.  Seeing a recognizable star in a new way pleased all the viewers.  Later I switched to M44, and moved Val's scope to it too.  Most people liked it.

I was using the 10-inch f/4.7 Dobstuff I acquired, and I think it will be a good scope.  I could see more of airy disks in the stars as it grew darker and the temperature settled.  I had a really nicely framed view of the Leo Triplet at 39x, 2.1 degrees TFOV.  I asked the viewers to tell me what they saw instead of telling them beforehand.  Everyone picked out the bright smudges of M65 & M66.  I asked them to pretend those were eyes and to look down in the field for a mouth.  They could all see NGC 3628.  They were all impressed to think these were each a separate galaxy.  To me the view was very nice, and would probably be even nicer if without the stray light and with better dark adaptation.

Valerie had been doing fine until an hour into it when she came to me complaining of her stomach and feeling cold.  We took a break in the observatory building to try to warm up.  She had plenty of jackets on and I realized she had a little fever.  She couldn't continue and wanted to go home.  I tore down the scopes and then apologized to everyone to warn them I had to back my car up and have them shield their eyes since I couldn't control the back-up lights.  I started the car, honked, then backed out; and then I started driving away from the observatory very slowly with all my lights out until I reached the ranger's house, enough away from the people to turn them on.  Val slept all the way home and fortunately felt fine the next day.