This was supposed to be a solar observing event, but clouds changed it into astronomy. 50 Girlscouts in ages up to middle school learned about the Sun, relative distances in the solar System and a little about asteroids. They also learned about telescopes, and looked at our atrificial moon and star and learned what telescopes do to the view of the objects. Some interesting movie clips of coronal mass ejections on the sun closed the program which was much appreciated!! Thanks Frank, Marie and Theo for stepping up despite the clouds and Mrs. Liz Reynolds for asking us to do this.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Frank and Theo went to Hard Labor Creek Park to let a group of special needs kids take a look at the sun in an adhock outreach event on June 22. The group was camping there and they really liked looking at the sun through solar glasses provided by Stephen Ramsden’s Charlie Bates Solar Project. Than they looked at the sun with some nice sunspots through a white light scope, and proms and filaments in H-alpha.

Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

We will have an Observe the Sun event for a girlscout troop in Conyers. We will be at the Elks Aidmore Children home on Thursday June 23. If you would like to come also. please send me an email. The address is Elks Aidmore Children home
2394 Morrison Rd;
Conyers 30094
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

Frank and I spend yesterday at the Arts and Science Workshops at Norcross High school. A very well organized event by Life Labs. Our worshops centered around the Sun, Space Weather, the Stereo and SDO observatory satellites, and the search for exoplanets. Some of these kids were fantastic!! In fact, the session we had with one of them made this trip already worthwile.

Thanks Frank,
Theo Ramakers

We just finished a 2 day outreach event for over 320 Cub Scouts and 60 parents from Fayette County at their summer camp at the Providence United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. During the 50 minute sessions, 20 dens learned how telescopes work, got some more insight about the sun and the stereo satellites, as well as the relative distances in our solar system. They also learned how astronomers discover and track asteroids. In addition to the presentations they saw the sun through our telescopes with some awesome prominances and a number of sun spots. click here for some images of the events. Thanks to Frank and Theo to endure the heat of the day as well as to Marie Lott, who joined us for the first day. Thanks Marie, we know how hard it is to do this while having a full time job!!
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

Next Wednesday and Thursday June 15 and 16th we are at the Fayette County Cub Scout camp, rain or shine. The camp goes each day from 8:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. Frank and I are scheduled to be there with some of our NSN kits and our Solar scopes, but it would be great if we could have 1 or 2 additional persons, or a couple, even without scope, so that we can rotate a bit, since during some of the periods we will have two troops at the same time. So if you have some time off and can make it for one or two days, please let us know so we can schedule you in.
Address:
Providence United Methodist Church – Fayetteville
592 Bernhard Rd
Fayetteville, GA 30215
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Our next chapter meeting and observing is on Saturday June 4th starting at 5:00 P.M. in the Vistors Center at CE. Marie will be sharing the presentation “Stargazers, Starfarers, and Kepler“ about the search for exoplanets, originally given by Dr Jeff Van Cleve as part of the Night Sky Network teleconference series.
From NSN: “The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and possibly life might exist.
So come on out and enjoy the nice presentations and join us at the Jon Wood Field after the meeting to observe the night sky.
Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

We reached out for two events on Wednesday and Thursday to the Excellent Montessori in Lilburn during their visit at Charlie Elliott. The first evening we showed them how telescopes work, and gave some more insight about our solar system and the sun. After the presentation they saw Saturn with some of its moons, but the moon rose too late to see the craters on the moon and too may clouds prevented from seeing galaxies or nebulas. The second day they saw the sun with some awesome prominances and two sun spots
Thanks Frank and Theo.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

The Solar Outreach for the Excellent Montessori School at CE has been postponed until tomorrow, Thursday May 19th.
Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

Today we did JAKES Day at Charlie Elliott. The first two hours were really slow, maybe because it was cloudy. But after noon when the clouds started to break, it started picking up. We probably showed about 60 visitors the Sun through 5 scopes and inside the Visitors Center some of them learned about the Sun and NASA’s Stereo 360 satellites and the Stardust Mission. I believe that some of them will return to one of our meetings/observing sessions. Thanks to Marie Lott, Tim Geib, Chris, Debbie and Jasmin Tisdale as well as Theo for participating in this outreach. Click here for pictures of the event.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers