Marie Lott, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakes went to Panola State Park again, this time to show visitors why NASA launched the Stereo Satellites to observe the sun. In fact the Sun did cooperate today and the 47 visitors were able to see the sun in white light and in H-alpha including a few very nice large prominences. We would like to thank Troop 270 from Cordele GA for coming out and take a first hand look at the Sun. There seem to be some real scientists in this group Here the link to the pictures
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

The Charlie Elliott Chapter has a Solar Outreach event at Panola Mountain State Park this coming Saturday.  The event starts at 10:00 A.M.  Details on our website calendar or the Night Sky Network site.  So if you want to join us bring out your solar scopes or filters and setup a little before 10:00 and let the visitors see what’s happening on the Sun.  Parking is free for our members who attend the event.
Please let me know if you can make it. 
Theo

Following the imaging session with Thomas Whalen, Lesley Edwards and her dad did visit my observatory to learn how to image the sun. Lesley is 11 years and attends 5th grade at Grayson Elementary. Lesley went also through a 3 hour session and was explained how we do it. What software is used, what controls we use and how. Than we opened the roof of the observatory and Lesley lined up and centered the sun in the scope from the park position, connected the camera, loaded and setup the capture program and brought the sun on the chip. She than set the controls of the camera, set the limits, spend her time on focussing the image and than ran the required frames. Following the capture session we continued the training inside with processing, Registax and Photoshop. She had a good grasp of what happened in the different stages and you all can see she did a great job. To finish it off, she uploaded the image that she produced to her gallery on our website. Gratulations to Lesley Edwards for her Charlie Elliott Picture of the Month!

We tried to show Troop 4009 the nightsky in the light polution of Atlanta on November 11, but we were limited not only by the bright skies, but also the high treeline. However, the girls and parents really did appreciate what they learned and what we could show them, and send us this thank you note and picture. Thank you all so much for showing your appreciation!!!

We had a great outreach event yesterday and today.  What originally was scheduled as a Solar event changed to inside presentations for 9 classes of the Clifton Church Elementary School.  The students were great, and learned about how telescopes work and what they do to your view when you look through them, they learned about asteroids and spacerocks and finally they took  a trip through the solarsystem and learned more about other planets and some of their moons.  Thanks Mrs. Foster for inviting us!!

Tomorrow 12/5 and Tuesday 12/6 we are at the Clifton Elementary School in Atlanta, to help the students better understand some of the concepts in astronomy.  Originally this event was supposed to be a solar event, but the cloudy and rainy forcast changed the topic of these sessions to be held inside.  Frank and I will do 50 minute sessions for 9 classes to give the students in each class sufficient attention.  We for sure are looking forward to this.

We had a very nice event at Panola Mountain State Park with a small group but very interested people. We really could spend time on all the tools we used, and did not have to hurry! A flight through the Solar System completed the inside program and outside Marie Lott and Frank Garner showed the group Jupiter and its moons through the gaps between the clouds. Despite the clouds, everyone had a great time!

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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

OK this is far out, but we would like to get this on the calendar. The Venus transit of the sun will happen next year Tuesday June 5th and the transit following that will happen 100 years later, so this is the last time in our lifetime to see this. The transit will start in daylight around 18:10 and we will only be able to see the beginning of the transit through sunset. We have a number of solar scopes in the Club and it would be great if we could share this event with the public. However, some of us, including me, would like to image this rare occurance. So we are looking for ways to do both. Any volunteers to man solar scopes for that evening at prominenant locations? Or would we want to heavily publicise this and do this at CE? Please let me know any suggestions or if you would want to volunteer.
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

We went to the Park at Emory Grove to show two Brownie troops the night sky. We were limited by the tree line and the light polution. The girls learned the different types of telescopes, about some constellations and how to find the North Star Polaris and got to look at Jupiter with three moons visible, but had to look at the moon as it made its way through the trees. Light polution made it not possible to see the Andromeda Galaxy or some planetary nebulas. However, they came away with knowing a lot more than before. Sorry left the camera in the truck, so no pictures this time.