Today was the day for Pucketts Mill solar event and the weather did cooperate The students learned how we get the energy from the sun and in what forms this comes. They learned about how the magnetic field shields us from a lot of bad emissions and how Solarstorms contribute to be able to see Northern Lights, and they also detected the UV light that changed the color of their beads. They observed the sun through H-alpha filtered scopes and whitelight and learned why sunspots look dark even though they are 6000 degrees. Some movies gave a good understanding of what happens on and in the sun. The last group also got to see Venus in bright daylight and explained why it looks like half of moon. Thanks to Mandy Collins the teacher who invited us and who reinforced what the students learned like she was part of our team Thanks Mrs. Collins. The students loved it.
Click on the picture below to see more in the picture gallery.

We went for two days to Trip Elementary in Grayson and exposed the 4th graders a little more to astronomy, space, and space exploration. They learned inside more about astronomical concepts, the solar system and the universe, and outside they learned a lot about our solar system. They were very surprised to find out through our relative size activity, how small earth really is and how far away we are from the Sun. They also could take a look at the sun and on the second day, they even observed Venus in midday!! Thanks Frank for adding this to their program. Thanks to Jon Edwards, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers for being there for these students. Please click the image below to go to the gallery and see the students in the activities.

We have seen a good number of images taken in the last month, but David Whalen has been very persistent in trying to get better with imaging Jupiter. Last Saturday the seeing was great and David captured his best Jupiter so far. With seeing as bad as it has been for months, this was very rewarding for David. The image was taken with his C1100, a DMK41AU02AS, 500 frames captured with ICapture and stacked and processed in Registax6. Very nice job David!!!

Another well attended meeting and observing session. Dr. Richard Schmude presented his findings of the research he did on the North Polar Cap of Mars. A very interesting subject. John Town presented his always interesting “What’s Up” and Jack Fitzmier did another book review. Theo reported that the MOU was signed by CEA and that we expect constructon of the telescope shed to start very soon. After the meeting it went to the Jon Wood Field where we ended up with 19 telescopes and many visitors from nearby towns as well as participants of CEWC’s Hunting and Learning program came by to learn something and look through the scopes. The imagers were also very active despite the cold. So it was a very successful day for CEA.

A great meeting with great topics.  Steve Siedentop opened the meeting followed by a short update and a call for help in our outreach programs by Theo Ramakers.  Jack Fitzmier gave a short  but very interesting book review of  Dava Sobel’s “Longitude“.   The main presentation was on Astronomical Imaging with a DSLR, a presentation Rich Jakiel also presented at this year’s PSSG.  John  Town finished the program with his usual, but great,  What’s UP which has expanded in a sizeable but very interesting  presentation.  After the meeting it went to the John Wood Field for observing with students from Stone Mountain Middle and two workshops at CEWC!   For pictures click here. 
Thanks to all!
Theo Ramakers

After the meeting everyone went to the Jon Wood Field for observing, and outreach since we expected a large group of students/parents from Stone Mountain Middle, as well as attendees of two workshops at CEWC:  a quilt group and a workshop on deer hunting.  40 students from SMMS had obtained a visit slip at school for the event.  Initially it was cloudy but soon the clouds subsided and all had a great experience looking at the night sky.  Click the image to go to the gallery.

A nice day for our meeting and observing. About a dozen attended the meeting. After some announcements and John Towne’s monthly “What’s UP” presentation, Larry Owens made his presentation about how to make time lapse movies. Such as the one he did for meteor showers and other events. He also showed some nice clipse of others who have very successfully done this. After the meeting about a dozen telescopes were setup at the Jon Wood field and those who did not have scopes with them shared in the views. Click the image to go to the gallery.

After the meeting a group of visitors as well as some members went over to the Dove Fields to observe the comet from that vantage point. The rest went to the Jon Wood Field where the western sky as also visible from the adjoining field however with a higher horizon. Here two images. the first one taken at 8:31, the second at 8:49, both from the Dove Fields

A beautiful day to have an astronomy meeting. About 20 people attended the meeting, with one new face. (We like new faces) Theo reported on last month’s outreach events, and the events planned in the communities for March around Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARSS. During the meeting an award ceremony was held to recognize those who had participated in 5 or more outreach events during 2012. 8 Individuals received the certificate and the NSN Pin, giving more than 900 hours of volunteer work, driving more than 11,500 miles to participate in 83 events. Marie re-introduced us again to the Virtual Telescope and the meeting finished with Jon Towne’s great presentation of “what’s Up“. After the meeting we had a whopping 20 telescopes and binos on tripods on the Jon Wood Field to observe the night sky. (Click the image to go to the gallery)
Clear skies, theo

We had a great meeting in meeting room A at CE, and evening at Jon Wood Field. About 15 attended the meeting which had a late start and ended with John Towne’s “What’s Up”. At the field it got busy. About 10 scopes and two binos showed about 35 individuals what was up in the sky. The group included students/faculty from Chamblee Charter, as well as a group of young Quail hunters, who were camping at CE and had forfeitted a campfire to come and see the stars! A great evening interrupted by clouds around 10 P.M. and netting some meteors. Click the image to go to the gallery.