Big thanks to Toa Payoh Public Library for hosting the talk and all who came to attend despite a very discouraging cloudy early evening! Was a little tired after giving a talk at National Junior College the previous evening (totally enjoyed that session too!). But the wonderful response from the library audience kept me awake and feeling alive. And the coffee from Thomas too!
Happy to see Mr Chia in the audience. I hope I get my solar facts right!
Thanks to James for being so optimistic about the sky when I have already given up a few hours before the talk. The sky turns out to be clear enough to observe Moon, Jupiter and Mars! Too busy setting up and manning the 10" dob and only got to see Moon through James' scope. Very contrasty and the 2-speed focuser is very smooth. As usual, once we start to help the first person to shoot Moon with his/her handphone, the rest of the queue saw and automatically took out theirs and standby. Thank goodness it's a tracking mount.
Manage to take a look at Mars through the 10" dob. At about 195x magnification, Syrtis Major was an obvious dark bluish patch. The ice cap was so shiny white! Better than what I saw during last week's Earth Hour sidewalk at Bishan Park because the seeing last night was better. Magnificent Mars indeed! Didn't have a chance to push the magnification more as the main focus was to let as many people see Mars as comfortably and as long as possible.
Sky was totally clouded from about 10:30pm. By the time the sky was drizzling, we have already packed up and enjoying our nice supper at the nearby McDonald's.
Once again, thanks to all who came especially the stargazing volunteers. Hope to see you all again for Spectacular Saturn!
Some handphone pics:
