Thank You for Astronomy Day

This is where you will find information and updates for all MAS Star Parties and Events open to the public.

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clayton
Posts: 1363
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:51 pm
Real Name: Clayton Lindsey
Location: Woodbury, MN

Thank You for Astronomy Day

Post by clayton »

Thanks to all the keyholders , speakers and volunteers for contributions making the recent Astronomy Day a success. The event was well attended by the public and MAS members alike. We had several members bringing out their personal telescopes and joining in outreach. With all the volunteers it was easy for our guests to get some one-to-one time with an astronomer, ask questions and be really engaged. I sure our guests had wonderful experiences and left with a greater appreciation and enthusiasm for astronomy.

Early in the day we had a nice row of solar telescopes along the southeast wall of Onan. We had Dave O. With a TEC Refractor giving awesomely crisp views of the the solar disk in white light. Multiple tiny sunspots were easily visible. The massive Sunspot on the limb showed interesting and complex structure. Also sharing white light views was Deane Clark with his TV-85 which proved modest apertures can performed exceedingly well if fine optics are utilized. The views made me miss my TeleVue Pronto that I once owned. I did not get a chance to peek through Roy Sarver's 6inch F9 but I should have. Comparing the views of a long focal length reflector with the refractors would have been interesting.

Mark Job and Kurt Casby brought out very nice Lunt H-Alpha telescopes. Besides giving really nice views of the sun it was fun seeing them comparing the images in the scopes. Mark's slightly larger aperture scope made it easier to initially detect and see some of the wispy structures but once seen they we visible in Kurt's slightly smaller (90mm?) Lunt too. If you got a chance to look through one of these you might want to look at the AL H-Alpha Page to recognize some of the features you may have seen.

The strong wind that was a little annoying during the day died down mostly by evening. Jupiter and the 8 day old moon became the prime targets. Jupiter and the moon were approximately 4 degrees apart so it was a nice visual. The clouds stayed away and as the twilight faded transparency was fairly good. The moon fairly high in the sky proved again why it's always such a crowd pleaser. The Straight Wall was very obvious in the telescopes. A guest even asked what it was without being prompted.

More and more I see guests trying to capture photos with their smart phones. Several got a few nice keepers.

Suresh, Brandon Hamil and Rachel Hamil shared views along the plaza edge with multiple scopes and binoculars. They certainly come prepared! They kept a steady stream of visitors engaged with their infectious enthusiasm late into the evening. Steve and Bob ran the Video rig while working to incorporate a HDTV Video camera on loan. They were troubleshooting power problems last I was aware so I am not sure how far along they got with the task. However I suspect we'll be seeing some improved instrumentation deployed over the summer.

I saw Mark C , Jim Cegla, Tim Biros, Rebecca and Eric Robinson running the various platforms. Eric I think has claimed the visual rig as his own turf and local expert. Lilah and Chris Blinkman, Merle, Dave F of course we're there keeping things rolling, handing out door prizes , keeping the keyholders rotating and filling in where needed. Merle, Lilah and Ben Huset were everywhere with their cameras. Ben's posted many of his images on his facebook page. Look for Lilah's instagram posts using mnastrosociety. Merle's will likely be showing up in the newsletter soon.

Thanks Dave, Michael, Jake, Nancy and Park for the time and effort put into preparing and giving presentations. It takes a lot to get a presentation together . Thanks for providing these key elements too our program. The classroom was well utilized. I did not get to see them all but I heard good comments everyone.

I'm sure I am forgetting or maybe missed mentioning someone as , darn it the sites so big now it's easy to miss people! A final tip of the hat to the Co-directors and ELO committee. A Really Nice job! Thank you for making this run so smoothly. It was another great Astronomy Day for the MAS.
Clayton Lindsey
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Lilah
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:09 pm
Real Name: Lilah Blinkman

Re: Thank You for Astronomy Day

Post by Lilah »

Clayton, thank you for posting this! It's nice to have a rundown of how the day/evening went! Also, thanks to everyone who contributed. We had a LOT of volunteers/members out there for Astronomy Day! It's nice to see so many of us come together. :)
Make it so,

Lilah Blinkman
MAS Outreach Coordinator
ELO Program Coordinator
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Sureshks
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Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:43 pm
Real Name: Suresh Sreenivasan
Location: Hopkins, MN

Re: Thank You for Astronomy Day

Post by Sureshks »

Where's the "Like" button in this thing?? :-)

Suresh
Suresh Sreenivasan
B-SIG/FB/Metcalf Comm

Refr: AP 130mm GTX/SW 120mm/Borg 4"/Unitron 150 4"/Jason 2.25”
Dobs: ATM 16"/Orion 12”
Newts: Cave 8" RFT/Criterion RV6/Astroscan 4"/Orion 3.6" TCT
SNs: Meade 6"/Celestron 5.5"
SCTs: Celestron 9.25"/8”/B&L Criterion 4”
Maks: SW 7"/Quantum 4"/Meade 3.5” ETX
Cass: Vixen 8” VISAC/Simmons 4.5"
RC: MallinCam 10"
Sol: Lunt 80mm DS/PST
Bino: Vixen 12x80/Nikon 10x50
Mounts: CGX/EQ6r-Pro/AVX/GDPX/Porta II
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Lilah
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:09 pm
Real Name: Lilah Blinkman

Re: Thank You for Astronomy Day

Post by Lilah »

Like! :)

Lol
Make it so,

Lilah Blinkman
MAS Outreach Coordinator
ELO Program Coordinator
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