Yeah man public events are awesome in my opinion as well. They can also be another way to build towards your 100 weekly vanguard marks because for each successfully completed public event it will give you 4 vanguard marks and if you are willing to go from planet to planet using that timer app of yours you can pretty much keep them going one after another. Plus as you wait for each one to start it's always fun mucking around for a bit on patrol. Little tip though if you do a public event on Venus called prevent vex sacrifices they are really fun and also good for a glimmer booster as well because at the end of them you get a lot of majors, but be aware you can't let even one vex sacrifice other wise you won't get the gold star at the end of it so hopefully there is someone patrolling that area as well to make it easier.