The Sidewalk Astronomers (i.e. on the pavement!) have been helping people to observe the night sky since 1976, last night was the first [International Sidewalk Astronomy Night]. This meant that many people around the world took out their telescopes to the streets around the world. Here in [Birmingham] we did the same. The 'scopes were provided by members of the [Birmingham Astronomical Society] (a few members of the [Uni society] were also present but without 'scopes). It was great fun. We had well over a thousand memebers of the public passing by and asking what was going on before looking through a telescope. For many this was their first time and some of the reactions that we had when people realised that the bright object in the sky was in fact the planet Venus were wonderful to see. It was even better to see their faces after they saw the rings of the planet Saturn for the first time. Great fun! We hope to do similar events in the city centre again.
The Moon and Venus were very nicely placed for some photos as well (it was a conjunction after all)....
More pictures can be found: [here]
