Archive
Fun under the shooting stars
Holey Cow! it was clear last night for the meteor watching event mentioned in my last post. We were hosted by Grass River Natural Area naturalist Anne Drake and her assistant. (Sorry I didn’t get his name.) On the GTAS side were Richard Kuschell who helped arranged the event, Gary and Eileen Carlisle, Ron and Jan Uthe, and little ole me.
Ron, with the most portable telescope, a Meade 5″ Maksutov went out where the whole sky was visible on the dock on Grass River a quarter of a mile from the small meadow where most of the rest of us were. The trail over there was mostly a boardwalk. Anne lead groups out there. His main problem out there was dewing of the corrector on the scope.
We also has Gary’s 8″ Celestron, my 11″ Dobsonian and the society’s 25″ big Dob all at the meadow. We were able to view objects rather high in the sky due to the trees surrounding the meadow.
About 27 or so folks came out. They saw the quite a few Perseid meteors and a number of the other wonders in the dark heavens. The last of them left just after 11 p.m. so we packed up and headed back. By the time I got home at about quarter to one a.m. some fleecy clouds could be seen overhead.
We’ll be hanging out at the Grass River Natural Area for the Perseids
On the evening of August 12th, 2010 and morning of the 13th the GTAS Sidewalk astronomers will be at Antrim County’s Grass River Nature Area to view the Perseid Meteor Shower and other wonders of the dark skies. Should it be cloudy we’ll do it on the evening of the 13th. Here’s the blurb I put on the GTAS web site:
Grass River Natural Area: at dusk. Perseid meteor shower. Cloud or rain date the 13th. Location North of Alden on Alden Road. Click here for a Mapquest map. Foe GPS devices use the address 6500 Alden Hwy, Bellaire, MI 49615. Park in the parking lot a ways in. Walk the authorized vehicles road or Cabin Trail to a small meadow. There’s also horizon to horizon viewing at the Dock Access Trail or the Sedge Meadow Trail. Keep on the board walk because the ground is spongy.. We’ll also have telescopes at the meadow. Bring your favorite mosquito repellent. The Grass River Natural Area web site is http://www.grassriver.org
GTAS Outreach memories for July 23 thru 30, 2010
What an 8 days. It began and ended with Friday Night Lives in Traverse City. We had reasonable weather for both. Some clouds to contend with. The sun was cooperating with sunspots both evenings. The setup for the Friday night Live events runs from 5 to 5:30 p.m, with the actual event running to 9 p.m. We always hang around later, moving the scopes to parking spaces.
On the 23rd we were there until after 11 p.m. with the gibbous moon rising above the buildings. On the 30th we had no moon and the sky hazed out, so we weren’t there as long, but we did get a lot of traffic from Traverse City Film Festival, with the State Theater a couple of doors down the street. Our troupe of Richard Kuschell, Gary Carlisle, Ron and Jan Uthe plus yours truly were there with telescopes, GTAS brochures and observatory schedules.
On the 29th we went to St. Francis High School for a morning with the Munson Day Camp kids. Richard Kuschell, Gary and Eileen Carlisle, Ron Uthe plus yours truly showed the kids sunspots with three of our telescopes. The Carlisles put up their display of astronomical photographs, while I gave the kids a tour of the solar system.
We then had the kids experiment with moon balls to demonstrate the moon’s phases. I had a ball that was scaled as the earth to the moon balls and had the kids put their moon balls on the floor, guessing how far from the earth the moon is. We got the usual number of short guesses, but in young man placed his moon ball at the proper distance.
The finale was cooking up a comet. Here’s a video of how it’s done. We had the kids help each of us. Gary made the best comet. The rest of us hada bunch of cometlets.
We took Gary’s comet as an example and made another for Friday Night Live the next night.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 