HW Observation Session
Sept 29, 2023
Location: Upper HW Playground Area
Time: 6 pm to 9 pm so the kids can make it.
Tonight (like last Friday) I'll set up the telescope on the sidewalk of HW Boulevard above the lower parking lot with the $350+ solar filter on the top, allowing us to look at sunspots until the sunsets at 7:20 pm.
At 7:20 pm, we'll move the telescope to the field by the dog park. Bring chairs to sit on if you can. I have room for 4 chairs, a ladder for the kids to reach the eyepiece on the telescope, and two coolers that the kids can sit on. Even a blanket will work well on the field for sitting and laying down to look at the sky.
I'll pack up about 9 pm so the kids can get home to bed.
Tonight's highlights: Sunspots early, followed by showing y'all how to know where the 1st man walked on the moon, then Moon craters, Saturn's rings, Chinese Space Station and I'll point out all the constellations visible.
PLEASE download the free app Stellarium on your cell phones if you haven't yet. Stellarium looks right through buildings and hills and planet Earth to show you what's in the sky. Stellarium outlines the constellations so when I point out with the laser pointer that here's the dragons head, the kids can accually see a dragon's head on the cell phone in the Stellarium app if the cell phone is facing where I'm pointing with the powerful green laser pointer. If you touch the constellation shape, Stellarium will actually outline the true constellation boarders. This teaches you what a constellation actually is (a constellation is NOT just the shape in the night sky) as anything that happens in the sky has to be in one of the 88 constellations whose boarders fill the sky as seen from Earth.
Click here for tonight's notes.
Tonight's highlights: Sunspots early, followed by showing y'all how to know where the 1st man walked on the moon, then Moon craters, Saturn's rings, Chinese Space Station and I'll point out all the constellations visible.
PLEASE download the free app Stellarium on your cell phones if you haven't yet. Stellarium looks right through buildings and hills and planet Earth to show you what's in the sky. Stellarium outlines the constellations so when I point out with the laser pointer that here's the dragons head, the kids can accually see a dragon's head on the cell phone in the Stellarium app if the cell phone is facing where I'm pointing with the powerful green laser pointer. If you touch the constellation shape, Stellarium will actually outline the true constellation boarders. This teaches you what a constellation actually is (a constellation is NOT just the shape in the night sky) as anything that happens in the sky has to be in one of the 88 constellations whose boarders fill the sky as seen from Earth.
Click here for tonight's notes.