Running a Telescope Viewing/Public Night Well
Stop Setting Events Up To Fail
There are tons of events, especially around universities, that include inviting the public to look through some number of small (≤16” and sometimes ≤8”) telescopes. I’ve been in too many where it feels like the goal is to make sure the public leaves underwhelmed, seeing little to nothing.
Obviously there’s only so much that you can do if the drivers of the event are other factors (weather is especially a wildcard), but they can often hit problems with inexperienced students setting up telescopes in full dark or things ending in early twilight during a date when the moon and/or planets aren’t visible. You know, the sort of thing where the telescopes aren’t operational for half of it, and are pointed at a random bright star for the other half.
What a good event needs
Operator Experience
Do you have contact with a local astronomy club? Invite them. Do some students do amateur observing? They’re on the small scope team now. Having people who already know what they’re doing is surprisingly underrated.
If you’re issuing people equipment, have them practice a bit on an earlier night. This will also let you find any broken equipment, avoiding night-of surprises.
Site Selection
To the greatest extent possible, the site should have a wide open field of view and no lights shining at the equipment/in people’s eyes. This can be handwaved for the moon and bright planets, but otherwise you really want to find a way to block out any bright lights.
Setup Time
Start early. The telescopes need to go up either just before or just after sunset, with finderscopes, telrads, etc aligned on distant terrestrial objects. This also means that if any telescope has problems, it can be be troubleshot or taken down before you have any visitors.
Target Selection
If at all possible, schedule the event when you have at least one of: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, or the Moon visible shortly after sunset. A waxing crescent moon is preferred. All of these tolerate twilight and light pollution very well, with Venus showing phases and the others a good deal of detail (craters, moons, rings, cloud bands).
If those are unavailable or insufficient, double stars are good backups/supplements.
Set an alarm for any bright satellite passes, as those are good crowd pleasers.
Observing
Look up some information about the target object. Either beforehand, or during. Providing context with how big, distant, etc the objects are adds to the experience.
For Jupiter and Saturn, you can call out moon locations.
Be prepared to give observing advice alongside your object spiels.
Anything that’s not automated/tracking will need to be reset pretty regularly. And people will bump it.
Some Recommended Stars/DSOs
Please keep in mind that this is just a personal list based in part off of living at mid-northern latitudes. Most objects are visible early/before the recommended season if you’re out late, and might still be doable just after sunset after the season. Ordered in increasing right ascension:
| Name(s) | Type | Season | Other Comments | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andromeda (M31) | Galaxy | Fall | Generally best in binoculars | 00h42m |
| Double Cluster | Open Cluster | Fall | 02h20m | |
| Alpha Persei Association (Mel 20) | Open Cluster | Winter | Binoculars only | 03h26m |
| Pleides (M45) | Open Cluster | Winter | Best in binoculars | 03h47m |
| Hyades | Open Cluster | Fall/Winter | Binoculars only | 04h27m |
| Orion Nebula (M42, M43) | Nebula and open cluster | Winter | Naked eye visible | 05h35m |
| M41 | Open Cluster | Winter | A degree or two below Sirius | 06h46m |
| Beehive Cluster (M44) | Open CLuster | Winter/Spring | Binoculars only | 08h40m |
| Bode’s Galaxy (M81) | Galaxy | Fall/Winter/Spring | Circumpolar, but worst in summer, telescope only | 09h55m |
| Cigar Galaxy (M82) | Galaxy | Fall/Winter/Spring | Circumpolar, but worst in summer, telescope only | 09h56m |
| Coma Star Cluster (Mel 111) | Open Cluster | Spring | Binocular only | 12h23m |
| Alcor & Mizar | Double Star | All/Circumpolar | Highest in spring | 13h24m |
| M3 | Globular Cluster | Spring | Difficult to starhop to | 13h42m |
| M5 | Globular Cluster | Spring/Summer | 15h18m | |
| M4 | Globular Cluster | Summer | Good binocular object in dark skies | 16h23m |
| M13 | Globular Cluster | Summer | 16h41m | |
| M92 | Globular Cluster | Summer | Less well known and harder to starhop to | 17h17m |
| M6 | Open Cluster | Summer | Binocular only | 17h40m |
| M7 | Open Cluster | Summer | Binocular only | 17h53m |
| Lagoon Nebula (M8) | Star forming region and open cluster | Summer | 18h03m | |
| M22 | Globular Cluster | Summer | 18h36m | |
| Double-Double (ε Lyr) | Multiple Star | Summer | 4 stars visible with good optics and focusing | 18h44m |
| Wild Duck Cluster (M11) | Open Cluster | Summer | Very dense, good in binoculars and telescope | 18h51m |
| Ring Nebula (M57) | Planetary Nebula | Summer | 18h53m | |
| Coathanger (Cr 399) | Asterism | Summer | Probably best in binoculars | 19h25m |
| Albireo (β Cyg) | Double Star | Summer | “Cub Scout Star” | 19h30m |
| Dumbell Nebula (M27) | Planetary Nebula | Summer | Difficult to starhop | 19h59m |
(If you want to suggest additions/removals or that these are best at different times, please do so!)
Recommended tools and websites
- Moons of Jupiter and Moons of Saturn (which do what they say, give you views of the moons around those planets for differing telescope configurations)
- Sky Map (A classic point your phone at the sky to figure out what’s where app)
- Stellarium (Available for linux, windows, mac, android, and ios. Even has a web version)
- Sky and Telescope (An enormous variety of tools, as well as articles about what’s up)
- Heavens Above (Satellite tracking)