I moved from the California desert to the Ohio Valley. Every time there is something to look at in the sky I debate moving back west, then the bills come due and I am glad that I am here. There is something to be said for a $350 mortgage payment that all the clear dark sky in the world can't overcome.

Our Astronomy Society does a lot of outreach trying to keep membership up enough to fund the fun stuff we like to do. We own 40 acres out about an hour away from town that is dark enough to see M13, M3 and M31 with the naked eye on good nights. The bad news is that the last year or so has been the worst weather wise in 12 years I have been out here. We are right under the jet stream, its hot as ass and twice as humid. When it gets a bit cooler and starts getting dark at 8PM again I do stuff with the library as well.

As for where, I have an agreement with the city and two different grocery stores that I can set up my scope and let people look. Tonight I am going to set up in a city park and hope for clear enough skies to get a few hundred people a chance to look at Saturn. The moon is too close to the sun to let randoms look through the scope, but next week will be first quarter and that will be a big draw during the day and we can hit 1000 people a day looking through a scope. Out of those 1000, 100 will take a flier, 20 will contact the facebook group and 1 or two will send messages about either "hey come to our school!" or will actually join the club. But I get to talk about space and nerd out for a few hours, so that makes me happy.

Pluto is considered a "challenging" object for anything under a 12" scope. If you have a camera and a good mount, a 4" scope can get an image, assuming you know what you are doing. There is a group of people who have been able to visually observe Charon! They were in the mountains, over 9000 feet above sea level and using 36" dobsonians, but they were able to watch Charon revolve around Pluto over a week. This is one of those things where knowing that the object exists helps you more than you care to admit.

I'm going to a star party in West Virginia next month in the shadow of the NRAO and get to go on a full site tour. but damn if I don't miss star gazing at 8500 feet in the Sierras. That was an experience that everyone needs to do at least once.