We were inspired to try something a little different this Halloween. With Mars looking so good in the night sky, we set up the scope and shared Mars with anyone who would take a look. It was relatively early in the evening and we were already able to pull enough light from Mars through neighboring treetops to show a fair image. The later it got, the better and clearer the image looked. A fact of Halloween in our neighborhood is that the littlest kids come closest to 6 pm and the older ones come later, so this worked great. My kids were able to trick or treat during the early time and share the universe during the last 60-75 minutes. Overall, we stuck with the neighborhood Halloween schedule of 6-8.
Several kids on different occasions remarked about how their science teachers had been talking about how close Mars was and commented now they could now go back tomorrow and say they saw it.
My own kids were inspired by the model solar system at Onan and I helped them create their own model and they shared what they could about it to anyone who'd listen.
It was a really fun night overall. We had about 80 kids trick-or-treat and we showed Mars to at least half of those in addition to many parents who were interested. Of course, hearing "wow" and "cool" never gets old.
I've posted a couple pics at http://photos.yahoo.com/mwfischer if you're interested. I wish I had some pics of the actual viewing, but when we were busy with groups of kids or parents, we just weren't able to take photos.
If you're ever going to do this, use an eyepiece you don't care too much about. There's a lot of face paint on our "came with the scope" 10mm Plossl. I'm sure it can be cleaned, but it may just become our official "Halloween eyepiece."
Happy Halloween and clear skies!
Mike