Side Walk Astronomy in the Park

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5 Members showed up at the park on Upper Wentworth and the Linc last night. We all had a good time showing the about 60+ people(young and old) views of the Moon and Jupiter.There was still wow factor in the Moon even though it is only a day or so from full. The terminator showed lots of detail of craters and mountains. Jupiter was showing lots of detail the equitorial banding and the colours were clearly evident. Many questions were asked and answered and many (O My God’s, wow’s and cool’s)were heard from the public.
Hopefully some of the other members will add the comments to this blog.

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From John G.

You’re right Jim, it sure was a lot of fun.
As the night wore on and the public left we had a good look at Jupiter.
There was a 6th magnitude star (45 Capricorni) right in line with the Galilean moons, and it gave the appearance of 5 moons. Jim was able to correctly identify which of the 5 was the imposter. Well done, Jim! You can look tonight for yourself and see 5 “moons” on one side of Jupiter.
Meanwhile, Steve K. and I were trying to identify the impact scar on Jupiter, and had a great time comparing views through our two 5″ achromat refractors, and comparing the clean, bright image of Steve’s orthoscopic eyepiece with the comfort and wide field of my Pentax. Both gave excellent views, and we were able to see a wealth of detail in the bands of Jupiter (including festoons and knots) and yes, we did see the impact scar in the south polar region. Unfortunately we didn’t stay late enough to see the GRS come around the limb. What a fun night!