We are at Panola mountain State Park on Saturday November 19 at 6:00 P.M. We will present inside for about 30 -45 minutes and than go outside for observing. We could use additional volunteers to bring some telescopes to show the visitors the night sky over Panola Mountain. The parking fee is waived for our attendees. This is the first event of a series of two. The next event will be in the winter for solar observing. The address is:
Panola Mountain State Park
2600 Highway 155, SW
Stockbridge , GA 30281
Please send me an email if you can make it.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Wow, what a great meeting with the feature presentation “Saturn” presented by Dr. Julius Benton, followed by Steve Phillips “November 2011 – Observing 101″. With clear skies, a large crowd with 19 telescopes and binos made it to the “Jon Wood Astronomy Field”, to observe 2 ISS passes and the transit of the GRS and Io on Jupiter in the beautiful night sky. Click here for some pictures.

We are reaching out to the students of Our Lady of the Assumption Christian School who will be at charlie Elliott on November 1st. We will do a solar event as well as a night sky event with astronomical activities after dinner in the Visitor Center. If you have an hour to spare and would like to show these students the beauty of the night sky, please come and help us doing this. Please let me know if you are planning to come.
Thanks and clear skies,
Theo

We reached out with a Solar event as well as evening activities in the VC, and observing on the Jon Wood Field, to the students of the Children School of Atlanta. The sun was beautiful today with a huge prominence at the SW limb. In the evening they learned about asteroids, how telescopes work and flew through the solar system before going to observe the Nightsky and got to look at Jupiter and three of its moons.
Clear Skies, Theo

Frank and Theo reached out with a solar event to the students of Chamblee Middle School. We had about 225 students take a look at the Sun and learned a little more about our solar system and the sun. The last group arrived a little late and had to contend with the clouds moving in and obscuring the sun. But for most it was a real eye opener.

Frank and Theo will be at Chamblee Middle School tomorrow morning with a Solar program until the clouds start rolling in. Maybe they will stay away long enough to finish the program for the entire school. However, we are cancelling the mini Star Party for the evening. The clear Sky Clock forcasts clouds, and 0 for tranparency. In addition, Accuweather’s astronomy forcast is a 1. So if you were planning to come in the evening. Don’t come!
Clear Skies,
Theo

The second day of the Festival was a free format. We were there again with three stations, including observing the sun through H-alpha and visible light telescopes.  Visitors could visit whatever stations they liked.  The result was that we were very busy all day, but the groups were smaller than the day before. Very interested students and very smart! Thanks Frank, Dan and Theo for doing this event!  Here a link to the pictures.

Today we did participate in the Georgia Department of Education’s STEM Festival.  700 science students were bussed in from all over the region to particpate.  Many of them were able to see the activity on the sun today in visible light and H-a, which was spectacluar with the large number of spots and some beautiful prominences.  the insode presentation made the students familiar with meteorites and how asteroids are being discovered, as well as the NASA missions Phoenix and the Stereo Satellites.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

The Solar and night sky observing event ended up being cancelled. However, the evening program went ahead in the Visitors Center. The students learned about the Sun and how earth protects us from radiation.  In addition they learned how scientists track asteroids and near earth objects, and did some research on this themselves. Than they became meteorite hunters . Thanks to  Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers for making their time available for these students!
Clear skies,
Theo

We are very excited to participate with three slots in the first Georgia’s STEM Festival (Science, Technology Engineering, Math) which is organized by the Georgia Department of Education. Marie, Dan and Theo will explain this coming Friday and Saturday, using hands on NASA/JPL’s Night Sky Network tools, what is involved in Astronomy and Space Exploration. In addition, we will have our Solar Scopes out at the school and give the students and visitors the opportunity to take a look at what’s happening in real time on our Sun. Over 700 science students, which are bussed in from different schools, will visit the Festival at the Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology in Lawrenceville. Saturday is also open to the public, so if you would like to stop by and help, or just say hello and take a look at the sun, please do so.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers