Good weather, full Moon and Jupiter up in the sky. What more do you need, wonders Kos Coronaios (Soutpansberg Astronomy Club).

Armed with new supplies of SAAO pamphlets and left over handout material on Jupiter and the Moon from the last outreach venue, I decided to have an impromptu stargazing evening at the local shopping centre "Makhado Mall", full Moon and all.

Checking out for any transits of Jupiter's moons and visibility of the GRS, I was pleasantly surprised the GRS would be on the central meridian early in the evening. That was settled then, a chance to show everyone Jupiter's "Giant Red Spot" was all I needed to convince me that a little sidewalk astronomy was called for.

An email to Jacaranda RMFM and club members to advertise the event was all there was time for, including contacting Cuan and asking him to come and assist. As always he was willing and I soon had him up to speed on the LX 90 kindly on loan from Dr. Philip Calcott for my outreach events. I was kept busy with the 10 inch alternating with various views of Jupiter and the Moon at different magnifications, while Cuan showed everyone the view through the eyepiece of the 8 inch. My tick book showed four ticks by 10pm, translating to 40 visitors for the evening and the register had 35 names with 5 new email addresses. Highlights of the evening were Cuan saying to me " must tell my dad that a "go to" scope is fine, he does not have to rebuild that jalopy in the garage for me", and meeting the headmaster of a secondary school 15 kilometres away who was thrilled to hear that we could come and visit the school in a few weeks time. Exactly what IYA 2009 is all about.