Earth Hour @ Ang Mo Kio, Kebun Baru Heights, this is a joint effort with the local RC. While there are people giving prizes for the colouring contest, guess the planet contest and meet the MP, this is no contest, i was manning my scope and paid no attention to the above activities. Basically, all i did was to man my scope and get people to see Jupiter and her moons.
Altogether, we had four scopes deployed, but the 8" Zingaro was put out of commission due to technical difficulties. the backbone was not secured properly as the screw was placed from the wrong direction. It was a hasty setup and that was overlooked. that was the straw that broke the Zingaro's back. well, in a way.. The other 3 scopes deployed were the Celestron 6" newtonian on the Sky Prodigy, Celestron C6 SCT on the Vixen Porta II, and my Skywatcher 6" Newtonian on the Inox.
The queue for the scope started way when the scopes were being setup. everyone was eager to see what the sky has to offer. Mystiq has the easiest job manning her scope as her Prodigy effortlessly tracked the planet every degree of the way. Desmond had to struggle to track Jupiter as the FOV of the C6 was tiny and Jupiter constantly drifted away. For me, not that bad as i didnt use a very large magnification.
Initially i wanted to use the Orion Steady Pic Deluxe i recently acquired to project it out, but there wasnt much time to do the finer adjustments, so i switched to the casing Hazrie acquired for me in Thailand. that saved me alot of effort and i could show everyone what i was looking at and focus it so that everyone could see it as sharp as possible. especially for the kids as what may be sharp for me may not be the sharpest for them. It worked like a charm and i could reach out to a group of them at a time. not the best view but i can show them the moons as well. so that they can see a better picture from Desmond, or Mystiq's scopes.
Everyone, including the kids, were amazed at the fact the Jupiter is drifting across the screen of my phone. so i had to explain that it was due to the earth's rotation. when some rather thick clouds rolled by, it blocked off enough glare to show the bands of jupiter. it was really nice to be able to capture that moment.
My colleague dropped by with his girlfriend, and my ex-main-scope. the First Scope. the one he complained that he cant focus and see the craters of the moon. I dont blame him cuz i didnt properly demonstrate how to use that scope. as the queue thinned, i propped the scope on the chair. and using the top of the focuser to gauge the relative location of Jupiter. fortunately, it was just above the tree line and that made spotting it much easier. i focused on Jupiter and let them have a look thru the 20mm Hyugen. a very bright dot in the sky. the i used a 6mm to show them the bands of Jupiter. i also used this time to explained the basics of the how to use the scope, how to zero the finder. hope that they will be able to use it to the scope's best performance. it is a fun scope for a beginner to start with.
as the event ended, we had a little us-time and i tried to figure out my Orion Steady-Pic Deluxe and found that it can stretch out and my phone is perpendicular to the scope. with the back of the phone facing the direction where the scope is pointing. i think i am getting a PUSHTO. with Skeye, i think i can get it to be a rough object finder. more or less pointing me in the correct direction. an idea in the making hopefully can do well in the near future. thinking of all kind of tweaks for the scope..
although tiring, but i do quite enjoy the event. Mystiq seems to be on her way to setup a Kids Astro Club in her area in the future.