February's Star Party in the Park

The weatherman could not have cooperated better tonight unless it was a bit less windy but the wind at least kept the mosquitoes at bay.  The temperature was a balmy short-sleeve shirt 70° and the sky was clear as a bell.  I talked to about 30 people of all ages, both local and winter texans, from about 6:00 to 7:00 and we then moved out to the patio where we had three telescopes set up.  While the group admired the Mars/Venus conjunction and Jupiter's moons, I got the scopes aligned on the conjunction and Jupiter. I then pointed out several features in Orion, the Pleiades, Taurus, Canis Major and identified Canopus low in the south. I found comet Lovejoy and several were able to find it with binoculars. A satellite passing overhead thrilled the young cub scouts that were present.
I did a three star alignment of the Celestron goto which was successful but when I set Jupiter as the target it slewed in the opposite direction.  Not sure what was going on there. I next did a solar system alignment on Jupiter which was a quick way to keep Jupiter in the FOV. Many in the group were at least somewhat familiar with the sky so everyone seemed to keep each other entertained and a good time was had by all. We shut down and were home by about 8:00.
I arrived about 4:00 to get set up. The finders were all finicky as usual.  I replaced all three batteries in the three scopes we used and had to put a penny under one battery to make a decent connection. Once I got them all aligned and tightened up they all performed pretty well.  Roy mentioned that the park has a modest budget for a new goto scope for next year.  Today was Melissa's last day. She is moving to Mother Neff state park near Waco TX.