Patrick wrote:

I go to _public_ star parties to help the public observe what they are excited by and, as I said, the public likes the Moon (and Saturn and Jupiter).

Educating/serving the public does not exclusively mean just showing them wow factor objects that they most respond to guided by a least-common demoniator criteria. It can also mean stretching their mental celestial horizons by using two premium 16" and 32" telescopes under a dark sky to show them detailed views of DSOs. That is the unique performance characteristic of SPOC. Scheduling SPOC like it is an urban star party location feels at odds to the underlying goal. This is a policy choice. The club can be run as: 1) solely a public education tool. 2) a compromise between the needs and desires of the members and secondary club public education goals. 3) solely to serve the needs and goals of the membership. I feel that #2 - the golden mean option - is better. But a schedule that makes all weekly public parties urban and lunar overbalances towards a public service goal. Scheduling SPOC like an urban star party location also incurs a cost - as some members will vote with their feet and decide to not participate. Don wrote:

New moon weekends are generally reserved for members only star parties.

Don, I'm not that up on the private star schedule. I understand the 2008 private schedule has not been proposed yet. The 2007 schedule put those dates three or four days before the new Moon. Those windows are unaffected by the discussion alternative schedule. At over 200 members, the club is large enough to schedule dark sky initiative parties at SPOC and at the Wedge on the same weekend. Not everyone is going to drive to the Wedge or Wolf Creek. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net