Last night, Thursday 12/21, Mojo and I took Strider, the wonder telescope (12.5 inch f/5.75 LITEBOX travel reflector) out on St. Armands Circle near Lido Beach in Sarasota, Florida.
We're visiting Florida for a combination holiday visit with Mojo's dad and his wife and a visit to the Chiefland Astronomy Village for a dark sky visit with our friends Tom and Jeannie Clark.
For the third year in a row, we set up our telescope on the sidewalks of St. Armands Circle and entertained the public with lovely views of Jupiter and Saturn. We got to watch Europa emerge from behind the planet shortly after we set up. We had families take a look, and then bring the rest of their relatives back for a look. All the clerks at the nearby ice cream shop came out to have a look, and one fellow gave out information about Jupiter and Saturn while we were at the eyepiece. We had over 100 visitors before we got clouded out two hours later.
We'll do this again tonight, and each night until the 25th. then we'll head north to Chiefland for some other farther-away views.