Guests

On Friday I invited friends over with their two young kids and sent them on a quick tour of the heavens. In such circumstances I play safe and show objects that I am confident of finding very quickly. I don't like boring people while I star-hop to some elusive fuzzy. Also the objects have to be somewhat impressive to avoid underwhelming the guests.

So the program was Saturn (before it went too low in the sky), Jupiter which was undergoing a transit of Io. I did catch the moment when Io appeared and the shadow was still on Jupiter's surface. M13 which was quite high and easily resolvable. M57, an exploded star makes for a good impressive story. M104, almost seeing the age of the dinosaurs at 50M LY. And some good doubles including Epsilon Lyrae, Algieba and Albireo. Of couse the moon was at 40% and its surface always amazes first time viewers.