[AZ-Observing] VIdeo Obsereving at Thunderbird Star Party

The Saguaro Astronomy Club hosted another very successful public star party at 
Thunderbird Park last night.  I did something different this time, and attached 
my digital video camera to the laptop computer, and showed off the moon that 
way.  This approach had its positive and negative aspects.

I stayed along the terminator with a very narrow field of only 3' by 2', so it 
you viewed the screen from a couple feet away, it was like observing the moon 
at about 500x.  The most interesting craters seemed to be Theophilus and 
Posidionus.  Next to me, Steve Palmer's setup that showed almost the entire 
crescent moon provided a great context view.

The positive side of viewing on the screen was being able to point at features 
rather than just hoping that people were seeing what you were describing.  
Also, running Virtual Moon Atlas in another screen, it was nice to be able to 
toggle between the scope view and a rendition with labels at the same 
orientation and scale.

On the not-as-good side of video observing, the hardware was a very big 
distraction, and often got in the way of the astronomy.  I like talking about 
frame rates and pixels as much as the next person, but I would prefer to talk 
about crater diameters and impacting bodies.  Then there's the less visceral 
sensation of looking at a screen.  For me anyway, it's just not quite the same 
experience as looking through glass.

Anyway, it was great fun to get out and show uninitiated people the sights on a 
typically clear May evening.

Tom
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