A great event at Rock Eagle today.  Frank and Theo presented the sun to a group of individuals, from young to older.  A one hour presentation about the sun, the effect it has on our daily lives, the natural protections in place, and how, and why we need to study the sun.  Great discussions about the Stereo 360 mission from NASA in which young and old participated.  Than it went outside for another hour to observe the sun.  Everyone got a feeling for the relative distances in the solar system by comparing the 6 foot sun on the side of the truck to the small earth on a stick.  It was a real eye opener to see how far that small size of earth is away from the sun.  Despite the clouds rolling through all got to take a look at the sun, which did not show much activity today.    Click the thumbnail to access the gallery.

Jeff, Kieran, Frank and Theo as well as the students and parents and teachers had a great time at Summerour last night.  We presented in three rooms, Space Rocks and telescopes in one, Jeff and Kieran “ccoked” a comet in another and Theo presented the challenges associated with the launch and landing of Curiosity.  Than it went out to look at the night sky with Venus, Jupiter, M42 and other objects.  And again a very successful outreach event came to a close.  Click on the thumbnail for some more pictures.

Today we brought a solar program to the 6th grade at Summerour Middle School in Norcross. Chris, Frank, and Theo showed the sun in white light and H-alpha, where they saw a very active active region 1429 and other sunspots. In addition the students participated in a number of activities learning about the Sun. Some of these activities included how big the inner solar system is, compared to a 6 foot Sun, how the light reflects when it comes from the sun, and they looked through a spectroscope to see the color spectrum visible to the naked eye. Inside they learned still more. A great day despite the very heavy wind.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow we are at Fairview elementary School to help the students get a better understanding for some astronomical concepts. The program uses the NSN toolkits followed with a ride to Mars with Curiosity. We then took a little ride through the Solar system and observed the red planet and its moons a bit closer. I believe everyone enjoyed the 2 hour session and according to Frank we might get some new faces show up at our meetings and observing sessions. Thanks Chris, Frank and Theo for your time.
Theo Ramakers

Frank and Theo did participate at the Career Day event at Princeton Elementary School in Lithonia. 45 real interested students in the advance sciences class listened to the presentations about Curiosity and what kind of jobs make this possible. Frank presented how to analize rocks to see if they come from Space. They were very excitited about what they learned and after the meeting they were ready to start the design of the next space probe to be launched from KSC.
Clear skies,
Theo

The solar outreach for Summerour Middle School has been rescheduled for March 5th because of weather conditions tomorrow. We will re-evaluate this date in the week prior to March 5th to determine if the weather conditions are OK. Please check the website for updates.
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

Yesterday we helped Memorial Middle School in Conyers, a NASA Explorer School, celebrate its second Space Night. Student groups had build models of the space shuttle and were competing for the best design. A great project. I did participate in the event by taking a slot in the presentation rotation to talk about the NASA’s MSL Mission with Curiosity and by doing this expose the students to the different sciences associated with Space Exploration. In addition, using Celestia, we discovered Mars and its moons from a vantage point as astronauts would when approaching Mars.
Theo Ramakers

Science night at Palmetto Elementary School was a huge success.  A great group of  students interested in science attended with their parents.  Thanks for Ms. Kristen Lyle for giving her students the opportunity learn more about science in general, but also about astronomy and space exploration.  The time for us was limited because of the early end of the event, but all saw the half phase of Venus and also could take a close look at the belts of  Jupiter with its moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Calista being just above the planet.  A few who stayed a little longer were rewarded by seeing the Orion Nebula. Thanks to all the students for attending and showing interest.  Click here or the picture below for some pictures of the event.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

On Tuesday 2/7 we will bring astronomy to Palametto Elelemtary’s Science Night. We will explain to the students about our planets, and show them how Jupiter and its moons, as well as Venus look like through our scopes. If we have time, we will also show them some deep sky objects. We have two volunteers already. Please send me an email if you can make some time to help out. Info about the location on the CE/NSN website.
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

Dan Schmitt, Frank Garner and Theo returned from Savannah from a very successfull event. During the festival approximately 200 interested students (out of approx. 4000) learned a lot about astronomy and space exploration and many of them got to take a look at the Sun (mainly at the end of the event when the clouds started breaking). Altough at times it was hard to communcate with the students because of the laud music/commentary from the program on the main stage….. Many teacher asked if we could offer this to their schools, but the distance is too far. Too busy to be able to make a lot of pictures

Clear Skies
Theo