Some of you may be aware of the weekly videos I make (see my signature). In addition to those, I have been working on live presentations as well. I do a short history of important figures in astronomy, talk about magnitude, measuring distance in the sky, and why star charts use the various designations that they do (referencing many of those important figures). I have also spent quite a bit of time putting together mythology videos that take a humorous look at the mythology of some of the more prominent constellations. These not only get good laughs, but they help people remember the constellations/characters when I get to the actual night-sky portion of my talk, when I highlight pretty much all of the naked eye, binocular and telescopic objects on the SkyMaps.com all sky charts. Finally, I talk a little about reducing light pollution so everyone can see more of what they've just learned about.
Anyway, I have done a couple of these talks so far. My latest one was at the Kankakee Public Library in Kankakee IL, a metro area of about 65,000 people or so. The Library is quite nice, and fairly large. They have a wonderful presentation room, which holds up to 240 people. I offered to give a presentation there a few months back, and they were excited to have me be there. I gave the presentation last night. To say I was surprised at the turnout would be an understatement!
I was expecting 25 to 30 people, and would have been ecstatic with 40 or 50. Well, the room had that many people in it 15 minutes before I even started - turnout was estimated to be 100 to 115 people in total! They actually had to add chairs, as they were initially only set up for 100. Here's some pictures of it:
