The TAC public night at Van Meter school turned out to be a very good night in terms of the diversity and rarity of what we saw, and in the amount of interest the public showed throughout it.

Although there probably under 20 people at the event, it seemed to be a good match for the three scopes that were set up (Rich, Michelle, and I). As a result everyone got to see a lot and ask a lot of questions. And everyone seemed genuinely interested in learning about what they were seeing.

I spent a large part of the night giving a private "beginning astronomy class" to one individual, complete with constellation lore, star-hopping through binos, and a tour of different types of astronomical objects through my 8" LX-200. All the while answering the questions of those "just passing through" for another glimpse each time the scope moved.

My evening started out with spotting Venus (first through binos and then immediately naked-eye) at around 8:15. I did a quick pseudo-alignment there which allowed me to easily find Mercury even though it was still invisible to me through binos at the time. Venus was slightly gibbous, and Mercury was slightly crescent. They made a nice pair. Over the course of the evening, I managed to see all of the planets except for Pluto which was just too washed out through the city lights.

Jupiter was gorgeous, and showed good detail. We got to enjoy a tight grouping of three of its moons, a moon transit/exit, a moon shadow transit, and the GRS transiting with two mysterious white circles appearing to be inside of it.

Luna came up orange and amazingly steady as it peaked over the horizon a little after midnight. The solar angle was just "perfect" for making the surface seem more 3D than usual to me.

The Southern Delta Aquarids were quite active considering we were two days from peak, and were seeing them before midnight. I probably saw over a dozen without even looking for them.

One highlight came after the public had gone. It was the most intense fireball any of us could recall ever seeing. It fell at 12:37 from high in the South to low in the South-East, cutting right between a setting Scorpius and Ophiuchus positioned above/right of it. I saw the flash on the cars and had enough time to turn around and find it in the sky. It fell slowly in the end as it burned with an intense green color (perhaps a little blue as well), and sprayed sparks reminiscent of the old Flash Gordon spaceships. It broke into a few pieces and then crumbled into many more as it went out. I'm fairly sure this was an S.D.Aquarid as well.

I'd do the whole night again tomorrow if I could!