Sounds like you had a wonderful experience. I have thought of doing the same but then wonder if having an expensive piece of equipment on dispaly in my front yard may give some nefarious types in the neighborhood the idea that I had something worth stealing when no one is at home. From: Raeburn Kennard <rkennard@kmclaw.com> To: "utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:54 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Neighborhood Star Sharing Last night I set up my scope (10" Odyssey) on the sidwalk in front of my house in Draper, and invited a few neighbors to take a look. We started with Venus to catch it before it set. Even though it was not in its crescent phase, the neighbors were surprised to see it as more than a point of light. Then Jupiter. They were even more amazed to see color bands on its surface and to see its moons. One perceptive man noted that it must be huge to appear so much bigger than Venus despite being so much farther away from us than Venus. I complimented him on his insight. Our Norwegian widow neighbor, who stopped with her daughter during their nightly walk, thought she was looking at the Moon. She didn't want to believe that the bright "star" (Jupiter) next to the Moon (naked eye view) could be so big and round in the scope. She finally believed it was Jupiter, when I swung the scope over to the Moon itself. Wow! It was fun to see her excitement! A mom with her four kids (ages 4 to 13) came by and had lots of "oohs" and "aahs." The littlest ones had just enough attention span for 5 items: Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, the Pleiades, and the Orion Nebula. The older ones wanted to run back through the tour once more in revese, but by then Venus had set. In the course of their visit, we saw a beautiful meteor steak out of the zenith toward the south! The mom had heard that there was supposed to be some sort of meteor event later in the night, and I assured her that we had indeed just witnessed the opening act of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower. Of course, she believed me, so that's our story and we're all sticking to it. (I operate on the theory that if you don't know a thing for sure, a high degree of confidence has a wonderful selling effect.) One neighbor stopped while walking his three hulking Huskies. I held the largest dog, while he maneuvered the others away from the scope so he could see the sights. He was glad he had stopped. The dogs were not interested in the eyepiece, but did bump the tube enough to give my Telrad plenty of chances to prove itself. It was a fun bit of star sharing. Raeburn Kennard, Draper, UT. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php