[Peyton-observing] July 18 Public Observing Recap

[jeg at astro.princeton.edu]

Thanks, Greta!

I agree that a sign-up would be useful, though I think we should say
that it is just for us to be able to ancitipate the crowd, and not
make it mandatory for coming--not that that would be trivial anyway.
For a long time we shut down during the summer, which seemed to me to
be silly, but we probably DO need more help. This may take some work.

--jim



On Thu, 19 Jul 2018, Greta Shum wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> We had a terrific turnout last night! I’d estimate we had over 60 people at
> 10pm (which was around the peak). We had everyone take a look at the moon
> first, and then we had to split into about 3 groups. Brianna and I each took
> a group around the building while Atirath showed Saturn to a third group.
> The other two groups came back and we were able to show everyone else
> Saturn, Jupiter and Albireo, ending around 11:30. Overall it was an
> excellent night for seeing and while the atmosphere did cause some haziness
> especially when we were looking at Jupiter, everyone seemed to be fairly
> enthralled!
> 
> However, the size of the crowd especially during these nice summer months is
> sort of becoming a problem. Brianna, Atirath and I were discussing the
> possibility of creating a sign-up form (like this one that Luke
> made: https://goo.gl/7AszG8), or a Facebook event. Simply encouraging people
> to “register” would help give us an idea of how many people to expect even
> if we don’t set a cap. Alternatively we could host two observing nights per
> month during the summer. 
> 
> Another strategy would be to just make these events less enjoyable so that
> we don’t have this high-turnout problem. (You’re right, that’s impossible!)
> 
> Thanks!!
> 
> Brianna, Atirath, Luke and Greta
> 
>