In Parkes, we setup along-side Galileo's statue, oops, I mean beside Henry Parkes' statue on Clarinda Street. Well over 100 people availed themselves of the opportunity to view the Moon and Saturn. CWAS President Laurie Crowley, and members Peter Cannon and I, had telescopes setup and ready to go from 6:30PM. We stayed until 10:30PM before things became too rowdy with the night-clubbers. It was wonderful to see so many families attend. Often they would phone other family members to race on over and check out the fantastic views of the Moon and Saturn. We were pleased to see the Mayor of Parkes, Cr Ken Keith, attend. He showed up to view the Moon and Saturn and to lend his support for the event.

In Forbes, members Alex Abbey and Paul Clarke setup on the corner of Lachlan and Templar Streets from 8:00PM till about 10:15PM. Like Parkes, they had a great response with lots of families attending. Alex estimated that between 70-100 people attended the viewings of the Moon and Saturn.

I believe CWAS members, John Vetter and Steve Quirk also organised an event in Mudgee on Saturday night. We'll hear from them soon.

On Sunday night, 5 April, CWAS member Ken Engsmyr and I, travelled to Wellington and gave a public viewing for the attendees at the Wellington Historical Society's Heritage Festival gathering. As on the previous night, we viewed the Moon and Saturn with about 30 people attending. It was a great night.

We were very lucky to have wonderful clear skies on both nights. Those who attended the CWAS meeting on Friday night with thunder and heavy rain pouring down, would not have been confident that the following night would be successful. But, we were pleasantly surprised to find a perfect, cloudless sky in the morning and it stayed that way all day. Fantastic!

Thanks to all those who participated in the weekend's events. There'll be more such events in the coming weeks and months, beginning with Canowindra on 25 April. We'll send more details of that event shortly.