Hi there. You posted:
A few impressions I've picked up having been at or heard about various
public viewings...
After queuing for half an hour:
- "That was so not worth it!"
We had "officially" 1,100 people come through Hyde Observatory the
night/morning of the closest approach (might have been more), and look not
only with its 3 telescopes, but through 6 others our club had set up on the
lawn outside. Not once in the nearly 6 hours we were open did we hear anyone
say "that was so not worth it". In fact, the words "that is SO cool" seemed
to dominate, along with repeated "than you's" from those who finished their
looks. The interest in Mars is still high, because last Saturday night when
it was cloudy and drizzling, we still had 200 people show up just to see the
Mars program we run in the lecture room.
Through a dob without tracking:
- "Gee it's moving fast"
Now I did hear a few comments like that, only I was using an un-driven GEM
Newtonian. In fact, the movement seemed to impress the kids the most, since
the other views tended to be through clock-driven telescopes, ie: "Wow, look
at that thing MOVE!"
Through an unknown 70mm refractor:
- "It's just a blob! It's worse than just looking straight at it!"
The smallest scope we had set up was a 4 inch refractor running at a decent
power, so we didn't have that problem. A few people from the general public
had bought some of the small department-store scopes, but they quickly
abandoned using them once they got a view through even one of the scopes our
club brought.
After a private viewing:
- "Well, I've done my duty" [re once in 60,000yr opportunity]
Nope, it was more like, "Wow, if its this heavy on a week-night, what is it
going to be like Saturday?!"
As much as I've enjoyed viewing Mars regularly myself, I can see why the
casual observer might be underwhelmed, and a bit disillusioned with amateur
astronomy.
That is not the impression I got. We had decent seeing (which helped a lot),
along with the proper selection of power and filters, but we also had a lot of
people who were enthusiastic to get a good look at the details on the planet's
surface, many for the first time. We ran our Hyde program, "2003: Year of The
Red Planet", in the lecture hall to standing-room-only crowds in the lecture
room, along with my computer slide-show outside to keep those in line
entertained while they waited. Most knew that they wouldn't see the fine
detail which spaceprobes show, but they were at the same time most
appreciative of what they could see for themselves "live" in the telescopes.
In retrospect, circumstances permitting, I think people should
also be treated to a side-serving a nice globular, open cluster, double,
filtered nebula, and optional galaxy or moon view.
We do this almost every week, but when there is a featured object, the public
seems to want to see that one, being considerably less interested in other
things. As a matter of fact, I doubt any of the scopes we had out there was
looking at anything other than Mars except early on when Mars was too low in
the sky. As for "filtered nebulae", we have not had good luck with filters,
as the public seems to need to "see the stars" to "lock" onto them. The
filters, while greatly improving the view of nebulae to those who know how to
look, seem to dim things enough for the public that we don't use them, other
than perhaps a broad-band filter like the Lumicon Deep-sky. Clear skies to
you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory:
http://www.hydeobservatory.info/
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