I absolutely agree with Mark Phillips above – people are looking up, and that’s a great outcome in itself.
In the 15 minutes after the feature on the BBC news, there was a marked spike in traffic to the BAA website, even though the BAA homepage didn’t have much to offer beginners wanting to find the planets.
I think Catherine Heymans’ approach is spot on… “Hey, you’re looking for the planetary parade? That’s great – there are lots of planets to see right now. This is how you can see them. By the way, you don’t have a hope of seeing Saturn, but let’s not worry about that – Jupiter and Mars are pretty great”.