Sess.# 281 7:30-10:30 Kanata Chapter's Variable Clouds
Sidewalk astronomy session this evening at Kanata Chapter's. Skies
cleared unexpectedly, and so Richard Harding and myself decided to
meet at Chapter's just after 7:30pm.
Richard had just picked up his new 8" Skywatcher Dob after work, had
assembled it and brought it to the sidewalk session where it saw first
light. Very crisp views of Saturn and Jupiter. Richard might write
more about it soon, hopefully.
Attilla Danko joined us not too much later with his excellent
refractor. We were glad to see him. We eventually had one scope on
the Moon, one on Jupiter, and one on Saturn. Good views. The two gas
giants will be gone fairly soon, so this month is probably our last
chance to show these planets to people for quite a few months.
85 to 90 persons stopped by our scopes over the next three hours.
There was one period around 9:30 where everything clouded up so I
ended up tearing down just in time to see the skies clear. Luckily
Richard and Attilla had left their scopes up. One man, facinated with
astronomy, spoke with Attilla for maybe an hour.
Many oohs and ahhs! The quote of the evening, for me, came from a
woman who looked through the scopes and then said, just as she was
leaving:
"Thanks very much, you've just made my week!"
Packed up at around 10:30pm after a very enjoyable session.
Roland Prevost ( aka Photon Man )
