I wanted to pass on the email I received from Julie from the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center:

Hi Theo,
I forwarded your email to Charlee.
I so appreciate the tremendous effort you, Frank and the other volunteers gave to make the Royston field trip a success. All of our TODS and BADR students are so fortunate to be able to receive the gift of your knowledge and time.

We love CEAstronomy!!!

Julie
Julie Duncan
The Outdoor Discovery School
Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center
GA-DNR, Wildlife Resources Division
543 Elliott Trail
Mansfield, GA 30055

Friday the 30th of March it was time to return to Palmetto Elementary School for the Field Day of  Ms. Lyle’s classes.  Theo presented various programs about the solar system, including asteroids, meteor(ite)s and telescopes.  But they also learned about the mission  of the Mars rover Curiosity and the different phases in the launch, and entry, decent and landing stages as it arrives at Mars and how long it takes to get there.  They were very appreciative of what they learned and were very proud to let me know at the end what they learned that day.

The Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC had two events for the 83 students and parents of Royston Elementary School from Franklin County, who came to Charlie Elliott for three days. A solar event at 11:00 A.M and an evening program with an hour presentations in the Shepard Room followed by observing the night sky at the Jon Wood Astronomy field, Despite the steady but transparent layer of clouds at noon, which made the sun hard to see, they enjoyed looking at our nearest star and learning some facts about it. In the evening, Sarah Flynn, Jeff and Kieran Rebitzke, Steve Phillips, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers showed them Jupiter with its belts and 4 of its moons as well as the crescent Venus, the double star Mizar, M42 and some other nightsky objects. The group was very excited about what they saw “above”.

Annette and Pierre Michel, Marie and Tim Lott, Anthony and Lesley Edwards, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers were the Charlie Elliott Chapter members who made it to the third annual solar observing event at Anna Ruby Falls.  Between 200 and 250 visitors passed through our roped off area at Anna Ruby Falls State Park.  And between the clouds they learned some facts about our sun, and why and how we to study the sun.  Finally and probably the most enjoyable part was taking a look at our sun through our solar scopes.  Marie also brought a projection cone on which they could see the sunspots. Everyone had a great time!  Click thumbnail for more photos. 

We had a great meeting yesterday. Potluck dinner while watching a BBC movie: Stargazers. It almost cannot get better! After the movie, Steven Phillips presented his “This Month’s Sky” for March and April, and Marie Lott presented “Build a Sun Funnel“. A few announcements completed the meeting. At the Jon Wood field, the skies gave way and everyone, including the visitors from the AOC and about a dozen students from GWA got to watch the beautiful conjunction of a small cresent moon, Jupiter and Venus, M42 and some other deep sky objects. For a few pictures of the meeting, click the picture below.

We had two days scheduled for Grayson Elementary, however Wednesday the clouds made us postpone one of the days.  But on Tuesday about 75 4th grade students and 3 teachers learned about the sun with its solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and how they impact us on Earth.  In addition they were very luck in being able to see one of the largest prominences I have seen on the Sun.  Very cool!  Click on the image below to go to the gallery.

As a member of the Charlie Eliiott Chapter you can attend the Night Sky Network conference calls.
Get ready for the public’s questions about the “end of the world” happening this year. Arm yourself with history, facts, and humor with this telecon from leading astronomer, cultural anthropologist, and popular writer Anthony Aveni.

To join the Teleconference on Thursday, March 22nd at 9:00 pm Eastern, call the toll-free conference call line: 1-888-455-9236

Call anytime after 8:45 pm the evening of the telecon. An operator will answer and:
- You will be asked for the passcode: NIGHT SKY NETWORK
- You will be asked to give your NAME and the CLUB you belong to, and number of people listening with you.
You can  download the presentation but you need to log in to the NSN website first.
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club/download-showdoc.cfm/2012S.ppt?Doc_ID=488&Doc_Filename=2012S%2Eppt 
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

We are ready for a Solar outreach event at Grayson Elementary School for Tuesday and Wednesday March 20/21.  We will be there around noon and will show all the 4th grade classes what the sun looks like.  We also have some activities for them that will help them better understand some astronomical concepts.  If you have time come out and join us.

A great event at Rock Eagle today.  Frank and Theo presented the sun to a group of individuals, from young to older.  A one hour presentation about the sun, the effect it has on our daily lives, the natural protections in place, and how, and why we need to study the sun.  Great discussions about the Stereo 360 mission from NASA in which young and old participated.  Than it went outside for another hour to observe the sun.  Everyone got a feeling for the relative distances in the solar system by comparing the 6 foot sun on the side of the truck to the small earth on a stick.  It was a real eye opener to see how far that small size of earth is away from the sun.  Despite the clouds rolling through all got to take a look at the sun, which did not show much activity today. :-(   Click the thumbnail to access the gallery.

We have  several members who have gotten interested in Astro Imaging.  They have setup galleries on our website that deserve being checked out!!!  Some nice images.  Eventhough that any of them does qualify for our Picture of the Month, we have selected for this month our latest member that setup a gallery.   Help me welcome to the gallery Joseph Seymour by checking out his gallery as well as all the others.