StarLog - March 9, 2017

A Sprinkling of Outreach

I finally was able to get together with the president of our local astronomy club to do an outreach event for a local elementary school. They were having a math/science night and invited us to bring a few telescopes to let the kids look through.

However, the clouds must have connections with the CIA and tapped into our email conversation, because they came out in full force tonight. In fact, it even started sprinkling while I was on my way to the event. Upon arrival, we quickly set up under an awning, in the hopes that the sky would clear at least enough for us to show off the Moon. Unfortunately, it never happened.

So, we showed the youngsters the only things we could:

CLOUDY NIGHT OBSERVING LIST:
* flagpole
* tree branch
* power transformer on utility pole a block away

The kids (and their parents) were disappointed in not getting to see the Moon, but still thought it was cool to see the telescopes. I brought my Z12 and my little Tasco Starguide 60mm refractor. They enjoyed seeing the little refractor move automatically when I punched in a Messier object on the controller, and they liked to compare the view in my Z12's finderscope versus the main telescope.

The club president brought his homemade 8" ball scope, which was also a hit. He used a 5-gallon bucket for his mount.

We had 30-40 kids come by and look through all the telescopes, and had a couple of parents sign up to join our club email list, so it was a success, despite not getting to see a single astronomical object (unless you count the 50-star open cluster on the American flag).