Back for another year at East Newton Elementary School.  Frank and Theo went to let 100 students learn a little more about our Solar System and observe the Sun as well.  The weather was real nice and the students saw some nice filaments as well as a few prominences and small Sun spots and inside they learned a little more about some of our planets as well as the effect of gravity at different planets and moons. Thanks to Mrs Thompson for inviting us for another year!

One of the groups who really appreciate our outreach is the Garden Club of Georgia. So we were again at the Jon Wood Field at CEWC to show these young people the wonders of the night sky, and they got to see three planets, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn as well as some other objects the naked eye cannot see. However, this year was a bit different since the New Horizons space craft was less than two days from making the Pluto system fly-by. In order to show the campers how “light” it gets on Pluto at its noon, we made a picture of the group at 8:54 PM. That’s when it was as light, or dark, at the field as it is on Pluto at Noon (#Plutotime). A great event again and thanks to Marie, Tim, Frank, Heather and Theo for making this happen. As Molly Kimmler, the event organizer, said in her email: “What a great night. You guys are the best!!!!! Molly”. The image shows the group at “Plutotime” pointing at where Pluto had just risen just above the horizon.

We did a Solar and Evening event for JH Ministries for a number of intellectually challenged adults during their Summer Camp at Collinswood in Buckhead GA. It was very satisfying to see how these adults enjoyed looking at the Sun and later that night at Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Thanks to Dan Thoman for organizing the event, and for Frank Garner, Bob Jacoby, Dominick Giacobbe and Theo Ramakers for showing them what was visible in the Solar System. This for sure was a great event for them.

I believe, it has been two years since we have had news coverage in a local news paper.  This year the White County News ran an article about our Solar outreach at Anna Ruby Falls.  This event is every year a success and the management at Anna Ruby Falls love us to come out there year after year.  Below an image of the newspaper clip of the article written by Ivy Rutzky as well as some of the pictures she took.  Please respect the ownership of the images by Ivy.  Thanks to all that did participate in this event and to Ivy to give us again some more exposure! Please click the thumbnail below to read the article.

We were invited to show the students of the Oxford Baptist Learning Center the Sun. A great group of kids who were very eager to learn about the Sun and take a close look at it through our Scopes. Not only the kids liked it but an adult who came by and wanted to take a peek also, thought that the Sun was way smaller than Earth and when she heard that the volume of the Sun could almost fit 1 million Earth, she almost flipped over. Please click the thumbnail picture to go to the gallery.

Three of us, Bob Jacoby, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers went to McConnell Middle for this year’s Astronomy Day for some of the 6th grade classes.  Three classes of Mrs. Sandidge, and two of Mr. Yoder, learned what  effect traveling through the Solar System has on gravity.  In addition, they learned some interesting facts about some of the planets.  Then it went outside to observe the Sun through a number of Ha Scopes and White Light telescopes.  They all were very surprised to see the activity on the Sun and went home having a better understanding of our Solar System.

Yesterday we did participate in CEWC’s event for Kate’s Club of Atlanta at Panola Mountain State Park where we brought a Solar event to about 68 kids and their chaperones. The weather changed its mind and turned out gorgeous, so they got to see the Sun with some nice features and got to search for our model Earth through a scope in our relative size/distance activity. They also learned what UV rays do to us, by looking at our UV beads and learned where the energy comes from on Earth. Thanks to David, Dan T, Dan S, Jon, Frank and Theo for participating.  Click on the image to see the gallery.

Friday night we had a great outreach event for Grayson Elementary School. We had four club members come out to brave the wind and cold to show eighty 2nd grade students some night sky objects. The kids and teachers were able to see Jupiter, Jupiter’s moons, Venus, M42 and a gorgeous 1st quarter moon. These students were perfect ladies and gentlemen for the whole night. It was a true pleasure to work with them.
Thanks very much to Bob, Dominick and Ken for coming out to give me a hand. (special thanks to Ken Poshedly for taking the photos.)

At the February meeting, we gave out the awards for members who volunteered time in 2014 for outreach. Members who participated in less than 5 events during the year were listed in our presentation. Those members who participated in 5 or more events were given certificates and a pin of appreciation from the Night Sky Network. If you were unable to attend the meeting, you can view the presentation through this link. Thanks again to all those members who graciously donated their time and talents. We are off to a great start for 2015, and welcome anyone who is willing to help out. If you are not registered on the Night Sky Network website, but would like to be, please register at this URL. All of the upcoming outreach events are listed on our calendar here.
Valorie Whalen
Outreach Coordinator CEA

This was the 5th year we went to Morgan County Middle School in Madison to show the students of the Astronomy Club what is happening on the Sun. We did the relative size and disatance activity, explained to them what actually happens on the Sun, so they knew what they had to look for when they looked through the Solar Scopes. Some very bright kids who did appreciate the opportunity to learn about our nearest Star.