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Citizen Sky at Riverwoods
Two nights ago Riverwoods Field Lab in Cornwell TWP, Florida hosted 15 Environmental Science students and teachers from South Plantation Magnet High School from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Great skies, 6.0 naked eye. I showed them Venus and Mercury in the 12 inch reflecting telescope, then used my green laser pointer to give them a nigth sky show of all the constellations, bright star names, mythology of the constellations, and pointed out a few variable stars like Algol, and taught them what happens with an eclipsing binary star. We then looked at the Pleiades, Great Orion Nebula, Mars Saturn, which was the thrill of the night. We saw 3 of its moons. I also showed them Alcor/Mizar and Cor Coroli, and explained about double stars. It was a great evening. It was extra special to me in that I am 6 foot 6 inches tall, and there was a 10th grade boy 6 foot 8 inches tall. I actually had to look up to someone!!!
Next week on Tuesday and Thursday 2 more groups from South Plantation will be out and I will repeat the show.
Chris Stephan
Robert Clyde Observatory
Sebring, Florida USA
We had two more groups of students on Tuesday 4-13-10 and 4-15-10 at Riverwoods Field Lab. These were more Environmental Science students from South Plantation Magnet High School. We had nice skies each night. Students observered through the 12 inch reflecting telescope. I used the green laser pointerto show the constellations and bright stars. I pointed out Epsilon Aurigae and explained about the eclipse and Citizen Sky. I evenrefered to the recent study published in Nature. Saturn was the hit of the evening. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring,Florida USA