StarLog - October 31, 2022

Halloween Night Astronomy Event

Fellow astronomy club member Warren and I provided opportunities for Trick-or-Treaters to observe the night sky this past Halloween night, one of the coldest Halloween nights on record for College Station. The thermometer said 50°, which would have been warm back in Kansas, but my bones have gotten way too used to Texas.

Our wives assisted with the night's activities. They distributed candy, controlled the crowd and provided photography services. The group effort gave Halloween night Trick-or-Treaters and their parents an extra special treat.

I used the Skywatcher Flextube 300P Synscan telescope and Warren brought his Orion XT12G. We set them up in my driveway before the Trick-or-Treaters and their parents hit the streets. Along with the candy treats, we showed Saturn and Jupiter to the kids.

More than 120 folks showed up to enjoy the view, and besides all the "oohs" and "ahhs," I thought it was great to hear that my house was their favorite stop that Halloween night.

For many of the folks, this was their first opportunity to look through a telescope. Warren noticed the older kids were very excited to look through the telescopes, but there were a lot of parents who had never seen the planets, either. One child, who was getting a first glimpse at Saturn through a telescope, asked Warren if what they were seeing was real or just a picture.

For me, there were several cute highlights of the evening:

  • One boy looked at Saturn and exclaimed to his dad, "I saw Buzz Lightyear!"
  • Because of the NASA jacket I was wearing, a girl asked me if I was a real astronaut. I replied: "Only on Halloween."
  • A teen dressed as a dinosaur came up to the telescope and I asked him if he wanted to see the asteroid that destroyed his people.

    • Warren said one of his favorite moments during the night was when he was explaining to one child that the four little lights in a line around Jupiter were the moons, and the child responded that there were a lot more moons than that around Jupiter.

    Of course, precautions were taken with the telescopes on this excitement-filled night. Although Warren said he repeated about 50 times during the night, "Please don't touch the scope or you will move it," the instructions still didn't work.

    The Halloween night astronomy event is all set to become a tradition at my house, with Trick-or-Treaters making this their favorite stop of the night.

    It's time to set up telescopes. Who will find Saturn first in the twilight sky?

    Trick-or-Treaters are looking through telescopes.

    A Halloween night visitor is looking at planets.