The second day at the mountain. It was cloudy until after 3:00 P.M. However, by that time, several hundred visitors already learned, using our Scope On a Stick, how telescopes work, and they got a pretty good idea of the relative sizes of the Sun, Earth and the distance between them, by looking at the solar Pizza and hunting through a spotter scope for the little Earth 75 feet away. When the Sun came out the masses came by and loved to look of the Sun with the huge filaments, prominences and active regions, as well as the size and the number of Sun spots they saw. It was a great day to have about 750 visitors come by our station and learn about this. Thanks to Marie, Jim, Frank and Theo for attending what we first thought, based on the cloudy and rainy start, would be a slow event. Click the image to go to the gallery.

We did participate in this year’s Home School Day again at Stone Mountain Park. However, the weather was not good fot it. We intended to show the Sun, discuss and show how telescopes work and give a feel for the relative distances and sizes in the Solar System. Marie, Jim, Frank and Theo only were able to use the solar scopes a few times for very short periods of time. Despite this setback the 150 Students and parents were very impressed with what they learned while looking through our Sope On A Stick, and looking at a to scale Earth through a spotter scope that was located at the right relative distance in its orbit around the Sun. The bad weather kept some students and parents away, but those that came enjoyed our show and learned something while doing it. Click the image below for a few more pictures.

This event was scheduled with the intention to give the students a better insight into our Solar System and to let them observe our Sun. We tried for two days, but in the end Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers had to settle for an event without observing the Sun. However, the students were very much impressed with the program we presented. They flew with us through the Solar System, while we kept looking how gravity affects space travelers. They hunted for Asteroids, learned how to identify space rocks from earth rocks and how we slow down at reentry to land on a planet. Great students and great teachers!! Please click the image to go to the gallery for more.

We went to East Newton Elementary and because of the clouds we started with inside presentations. We took them on a trip through the Solar System while discussing how astronauts would be effected by the gravity of other planets e.g. Mars and some of their moons or asteroids. Than they went on to hunt for asteroids and learned about the properties of Meteorites. When we finshed the Sun came out, and we routed all classes again to let the Students take a look at the Sun through our solar scopes. A great event and they will be back on Saturday evening to look through our telescopes at the night sky.
Thanks Frank and Theo for giving these students a great time.
Click the image below to link to the gallery for the event.

The last day this year at Cousins. 4 classes of 6th graders learned a little more about the planets in our solar system and made some great observations on Mars and learned about the size of Olympus Mons by taking a flight through the solar system. They learned about the orbits of astroids and where possibly the two Marsian moons might come from. Learning about the properties of Meteorites and identifying them was fun. All were able to hold a rock out of space in their hands before we closed the sessions. Click the image below to go to the gallery.

Back at Cousins for more astronomy. The students went with me on a trip through the solar system and we did visit some planets, but on top of that they learned about gravity on different planets and moons and they expressed concern if their athletes would start running on Phobos They learned about asteroids and did search for them and figured out which of the rocks I brought came out of space. A great day for these students!! Click the thumbnail below to go to the gallery.

Theo Ramakers responded to a request from Cousins Middle School to show the 240 6th grade students what goes on on the Sun. The Students observed the Sun through a visible light scope and an Ha scope. About 8 sunspots were visible and through the Ha scope the students could see small prominences protuding in one quadrant. They then experienced how small we are in the realm of the Universe and our solar system. They placed to scale models of Mercury, Venus and Earth in their proper orbits around the Sun and found out how small we really are on Earth and how far we are from the Sun. A great experience for the 8 classes who did rotate through this in around 95 degree weather. Click the picture below to link to the gallery.

Here is an self explanatory email from Rusty Garisson, the Program Manager at CEWC about our recent outreach:

Theo, Thank you very much for coming out the last two weeks to conduct programs for us at CEWC. I am not sure what you did with the children this last week but you certainly made an impression. We asked a question on the evaluation: “Were there any speakers you would particularly like to see again?” We have 18 different speakers throughout the week but you rated as the top speaker! The next closest was the bat speaker. So, whatever you did, keep it up!
Again, thanks for your assistance.
Rusty Garrison
Program Manager, Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, Nongame Conservation Section

Thanks to Dan for coming out and helping me.

Dan Schmitt and I went to CEWC yesterday evening to broaden the knowledge of astronomy for the 20 kids that participated in the Summer Camp. Cloudy skies and rain, so we could not observe the sky from the JWF. However for two hours we had them participate in our astronomical activities, and we went on a trip through the Solar System visiting many planets and their moons. They learned a lot and based on their smiley faces they liked the evening session while they made a to scale model f the solar system, learned about how we can escape the gravity of Earth and how we search for asteroids and determine if rocks come out of space or are Earth rocks. A very rewarding evening for us! I forgot my camera, so today no pictures of the event. Thanks Dan for helping out!
Theo Ramakers

Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center organized the Outdoor Wildlife Leadership School workshop at CEWC for members of different locations of the Department of Natural Resources in Georgia. Of course if it is CEWC, astronomy is part of the curriculum. So we went to show these leaders what we do. It was clouded when we started, so we did our inside presentations and as time went on, the skies started to break open allowing us to go to the JWF to show them what we wanted to show them. Transparency stayed bad but they got a pretty good look at Saturn, Mars, the ring nebula, the great cluster in Hercules, M4 and M7 as well as the double stars Mizar and Albireo and learned a lot about the summer constellations. They all loved it. Thanks to Jim Lancaster and his wife, Jon and Marilyn Edwards, Dan Schmitt, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers to participate in this great event.
Theo