Saturday evening was clouded out, but by 5pm Sunday the sky was completely clear. My friend Steve Loring and I set up our scopes in downtown Portsmouth from 8-10pm. Temperature was a chilly 35 deg. F. with a wind of about 10 mph.
I set up a pair of 15x70 binoculars on a tripod to give early passers-by something to use to see the moon while I was setting up the mount and C9 for views of Saturn. There were quite a few people who said this was their best view of the moon ever, implying they had never looked at it through a telescope.
Steve arrived and brought his Odyssey 10". He has incorporated a home-made wedge into the base with a very creative lever that allows you to use one knee to track an object while your eye remains at the eyepiece. It works outstandingly well. Steve kept the dob on the moon and varied the eyepieces from 10 to 25mm. 100x was the most popular magnification.
Downtown was very bright, but after finding Polaris and properly aligning the mount, it kept Saturn in view faithfully all evening.
About 75 people stopped by, including several families with kids. Many people asked me if the image of Saturn was real, or some kind of transparency in front of the telescope. My sharpest-eyed observer was a Portsmouth policeman who spotted four of Saturn's moons and may have seen a fifth. We had three different patrolment stop by for a look (not much activity on a cold Sunday evening for police to worry about.)
People were also amazed that they could see Saturn clearly by eye. When people asked me which 'star' was Saturn, I asked if they could tell which of the pair (Regulus and Saturn) was more of a golden color. About 90% of the people could see Saturn's pale golden hue especially with bright white Regulus close by for reference. Much of science progresses by this kind of comparison rather than by just observation. (In fact, as Stephen Jay Gould pointed out, the official name of the facility where he worked is the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.)
There was a restaurant very close by and over the course of the evening every employee made it out to observe. Apparently they went back in and told their colleagues "you have to go see the moon and Saturn" and several came out twice. One of the cooks actually drove home at 9:30 to bring his son back, which was a treat for us, and I think for young Gregory too.
All in all it was a wonderful night. Looking forward to many more, especially when the weather warms up a bit.
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