Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers went to Madison on 9/24 for an astronomy event for the Astronomy and Science clubs at the school. the program did give the students a good feel for the relative distances in the solar system, as they walked accross the football field with the tiny earth to the location where earth orbits the sun, which was depicted by a Sun poster on the side of a metal bin. They were able to see some sunspots and solar flares through visual light and H-alpha scopes and learned how telescopes work and had a chance to look through the scope a student helped put together. About 30 students did learn some interesting things about the solar system.
Thanks to Mrs Elo for inviting us.
Theo

Steve Bieger gave his Galileo presentation for 70 Students at Stone Mountain Middle school on Friday September 24th. The students liked it very much and had some excellent questions! Great job Steve to bring some astronomy and history to the middle school.
Theo

(here’s a link to Steve’s post and pictures from the event – http://ceastronomy.org/sbieger/posts/17)

We have two events on Monday the 27th for Charlie Elliott’s Outdoor Discovery School, who will be hosting the Harbour Oaks Montessori School of Grayson. Those who have Solar scopes can help with the solar session at noon. In the evening we have an inside program around 7:30 followed with observing at the field around 8:30 P.M. afterward. So if you can help, please bring your scope out and let the kids take a peek at the night sky.
Thanks and Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Our outreach event at Stone mountain Mifddle School was great!   We had about 350 students attend the presentations (8 of them) and the Solar Observing.  Thanks to Frank Garner, Phillip Sacco and Theo for reaching out to the students of this school.  Madeline Hill, who was our contact point at the school wrote:

Thank you so much for an awesome day at Stone Mountain Middle School.  The students were so excited to see and hear about the planets, the moons, the relative size and distance of the Earth in comparison with the sun.  I believe they were all shocked with awe to see the sun spots and the solar flares.  One student’s parent came to get him for a doctor’s appointment.  As he was leaving school, he ran over to us and  made her wait while he got a peek at the sun before leaving.  (smile).

I believe that everything they experienced will be remembered on their CRCT exams.  My gratitude is extended to you gentlemen for taking time from your busy schedules to spend a day enlightening our students.  That was my first time looking at the sun like that, and for many of our students, it may be the only solar viewing experience they will get in their life time.

Participating in the InOMN, five chapter members brought out their telescopes to Hibbett Sporting Goods next to Kroger in Covington on Saturday and let the public observe the moon. In addition, they were able to take a peek at Venus and later at Jupiter and four of its moons. About 120 adults and children took advantage of this!!! Thanks to Frank Garner, Dan Schmitt,Steve Bieger, Alan Bolton and Theo Ramakers for volunteering their time for this successfull event!

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We will have an event at Stone Mountain Middle school this coming Tuesday. We will do presentations in the Auditorium from 10:00 A.M. until 2:45 P.M, while we also will let the students observe the Sun outside through solar scopes. So if you can spare the time with your scope, please come out. Before setting up the scope you need to register in the office. Please let me know if you can make it.
Address:
Stone Mountain Middle School
4301 Sarr Parkway
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
Thanks for considering.
Theo

We’ve added two events to our calendar for Memorial Middle School in Conyers. October 27, we will present to the entire sixth grade classes. Weather depending, we also will let them observe the sun through solar scopes. This is an all day event and starts at 9:00 AM. On November 4th, we will participate in their NASA night and in addition to letting the students observe the nightsky through our telescopes, we will teach them about relative sizes and distances in the Solar system and Universe. This night they also will be able to see Jupiter and its moons Calisto, Europa and Io, who will be clustered not far from the planet.
Please let me know if you can participate with your scopes in one or both of these events.
Thanks and Clear Skies,
Theo

The Charlie Elliott chapter is participating in the International observe the Moon Night event. The evening of September 18, astronomy clubs all over the world will be reaching out to the general public and offer them to take a look at our nearest neighbor in the sky, the Moon. Our chapter will be setting up telescopes around 6:00 P.M in the Kroger Shopping Center in Covington and let visitors to take a look at the moon, its craters and mares and other interesting areas of the moon. We are setting up on the sidewalk in front of Hibbett Sporting Goods and we have two telescopes already allocated for the event, so come on out and particiate in talking to the public about our interesting hobby and space exploration starting around 5:30 – 6.00 P.M. until ?
Address:
Hibbett Sporting Goods
3159 Highway 278
(Kroger shopping Center)
Covington, GA 30014
33.603 N – -83.583 W

We received a request from the Garden Club of Georgia to do an event during their Camp at Charlie Elliott the evening of Sunday July 11 at Jon Wood field. Frank Garner has volunteered to run this, but he is looking for additional scopes. Two years ago we did an event with them, and last year the event rained out, so this year hopes are up for clear skies. Call Frank, or talk to him at next week’s meeting and let him know if you can make it.
Clear Skies,
Theo

We have been informed that the camp, and with that the outreach which was scheduled for July 14th, for the “Girls of the Great Outdoors”, has been cancelled.
Clear Skies
Theo