Notes on last Saturday, April 14th, 2022 observation session.
A private reveal party was happening in the pavilion and pink smoke came out of the flares (that was my intuition I told a member when I arrived). First names of people that showed include Emily/Scott/Evan, Ryan/Amber/Ava/Addison, Dave/Diane, Mark & Ani of those that signed the sign-in sheet. It was cloudy but that didn't stop us from a great Stargazing session. While it was still light out, I started by showing Dave some kinesthetics and photos from my Astronomy textbook that allowed one to see the outline of a womans face on most of the upper right of the moon and Dave & I did some kinesthetic Astronomy until others started arriving. Dave then taught what he had learned to the new arrivals and Emily signed her family in and helped get others signed in on the sign-in sheet. Evan (I think I have the right nice young man) helped me get the big telescope out of my car while others carried other gear up. As I showed one how to use a telescope by turning the scope to the blinking red lights on antennas in the distance, they in turn showed another and so forth as I answered questions of others. One subject was an objects magnitude (brightness) that I went through a short history of. I reminded everyone (and I'm reminding you) that everyone should go to my webpage smile2340.com and then HW 78620 and then Stargazers and then Frequently Asked Questions and go through the answers to those questions which will slingshot you further into knowledge of the night sky. Many of the answers to these questions are not available on the internet and if you search them, often take you to my webpage. I'll continue adding more info to our Stargazers category as time goes on.
Ani and his wife Veda will be moving into a home on Tierra soon and Ani has several telescopes, of which, his best telescope is probably the one most of us dream of having so it's exciting to Ani's expertise of using a telescope to take long exposure photos of heavenly objects. Ani's photos that he shared with me were as good or better than I've ever seen in Astronomy magazines over the last several decades. I'm sure there are many more Headwaters residents with telescopes, so in the future HW residents will learn from several of us as they absorb the beautiful of our universe through our telescopes and/or that can run Stargazer evenings when I'm not able to.
A private reveal party was happening in the pavilion and pink smoke came out of the flares (that was my intuition I told a member when I arrived). First names of people that showed include Emily/Scott/Evan, Ryan/Amber/Ava/Addison, Dave/Diane, Mark & Ani of those that signed the sign-in sheet. It was cloudy but that didn't stop us from a great Stargazing session. While it was still light out, I started by showing Dave some kinesthetics and photos from my Astronomy textbook that allowed one to see the outline of a womans face on most of the upper right of the moon and Dave & I did some kinesthetic Astronomy until others started arriving. Dave then taught what he had learned to the new arrivals and Emily signed her family in and helped get others signed in on the sign-in sheet. Evan (I think I have the right nice young man) helped me get the big telescope out of my car while others carried other gear up. As I showed one how to use a telescope by turning the scope to the blinking red lights on antennas in the distance, they in turn showed another and so forth as I answered questions of others. One subject was an objects magnitude (brightness) that I went through a short history of. I reminded everyone (and I'm reminding you) that everyone should go to my webpage smile2340.com and then HW 78620 and then Stargazers and then Frequently Asked Questions and go through the answers to those questions which will slingshot you further into knowledge of the night sky. Many of the answers to these questions are not available on the internet and if you search them, often take you to my webpage. I'll continue adding more info to our Stargazers category as time goes on.
Ani and his wife Veda will be moving into a home on Tierra soon and Ani has several telescopes, of which, his best telescope is probably the one most of us dream of having so it's exciting to Ani's expertise of using a telescope to take long exposure photos of heavenly objects. Ani's photos that he shared with me were as good or better than I've ever seen in Astronomy magazines over the last several decades. I'm sure there are many more Headwaters residents with telescopes, so in the future HW residents will learn from several of us as they absorb the beautiful of our universe through our telescopes and/or that can run Stargazer evenings when I'm not able to.
Headwaters Stargazers
Purpose: Just another way to bring Headwaters Residences together; to get to know each other but at the same time learn simple things about our planet's night sky. In each session, Mr. Paul Konichek & hopefully others in the near future, will tell precious stories about our night sky, for that night, as each night is unique. Each nigh is unique, not simply because of the sky phenomena, but because of what you bring to the session. Kids are more than welcome and even encouraged. One example story is above about April 14th, 2022 session and another below.
For example: (I'll take you through another past session)
As I was setting up when a mother and her son walk up (Let's call them Katy & Nate), all smiles. The sun had just set so it was plenty bright out yet. Katy apologized for not bringing a telescope or binoculars but did bring a chair to sit in. They had actually walked all the from Crimson Sky, the length of Tierra and hung a left down Hazy Hills to just beyond the bridge, were I was setting up, on a concrete section with three metal posts that were folded down and a large commons field that was left, without a house, because of possible flooding.
First we looked for the Moon as it was a New Moon (meaning the moon past under/over the sun) at 2 am that morning so by 8 pm (20 hours later) should have moved 10 degrees east of the setting sun (the moon moves it's diameter [1/2 degree] each hour east) so I had Kati look at my notes, on the card table, to see when the moon was suppose to set as I was off looking for the very young crescent moon. Then, while I was still looking for it, Kati brought up an app on her phone that could see right through the Earth (or houses) and Kati located the moon behind a home on Tierra, so we knew we couldn't see it anymore this night.
Then a neighbor girl showed up, all smiles, and mentioned to Katy that she was in Nate's class. So she just stopped in to say hi to Nate and was needed at home so left again. She had participated the last session with her friends and father during setup.
Then two young men arrived, in a sports car, and asked it they could join us (let's call them Ethan & Parker). It just so happened that the first three stars were visible and I explained that they were called the Winter triangle and their names and meanings and importance to navigation (even today). Nate, for like the fourth time, spoke up and said the most insightful statement. Not everyone understood what Nate said but from my knowledge of Astronomy, every time Nate spoke a higher dimensional thought came out that was so true but would take more time than we had to explain to the whole group. I acknowledge each of Nate's insightful comments and how they did apply in a meaning way to our current situation. More of the brightest stars appeared and the four of them were interested in learning the "sensational celestial six pack", each in a different constellation (region of the sky), their names & meanings. Nate said that they hadn't had supper yet so asked permission to leave and return after supper so Nate & Parker went on their way.
Then a family of four drove up (let's call them Nathan & Stacy and their young daughters, Emily & Ava). Nathan had attended a previous Stargazers and remembered many things that he had learned so I handed him the really bright laser pointer (as he knew it is against the law to aim at airplanes and not to point it at object that it could reflect off as it is harmful to eyes) and Nathan named several of the bright stars to his family and all in attendance. (I was really impressed). I had lost the printout of my notes for the night but Stacy brought them up on her cell phone and Stacy kept track of all the times for the man-made satellites to go over and Stacy was a vital component that session as we did see both a rocket booster and the ISS go through the constellations and stars that she named at exactly the times that she said they would go through, from my notes. Everyone present was surprised how dim the reflection was off the rocket booster compared to the reflection off the solar panels of the International Space Station. We had to look between two roofs across the street and stand down the hill, closer to the ditch, in order to see the star named Shedar (the breast of Cassiopeia, the Queen of the night sky) to see the start of the reflection off the ISS.
All the people present now took turns at looking through both the Headwaters 70 mm telescope and my new 300 mm canon (that's what a neighbor girl called it last session). I had a ladder for Emily & Ava to climb to see through the big telescope but Nathan held up Emily and Stacy held up Ava so they could look through the big telescopes eyepiece at clusters of tens or hundreds of stars and/or nebula. I had Nathan also move through the Milky Way Galaxy slowly as he looked with the big telescope at how many more stars that he could see (thousands) that we could not see at all with our naked eye.
Another man, that has come to at least three other sessions so has learned to use the telescopes and has learned many of the constellations and their star names; let's call him Greg, showed up after 9 pm. Greg has helped me teach families in previous sessions and is so very good with learning from people and teaching people. He had used his app, on his phone, to show previous children the shapes of the constellations as he held his cell phone up, aiming at that region of the sky while at the same time I was outlining them in the sky with the powerful green laser pointer. As a team, everyone present, saw the night sky and a whole new way.
The previous week, Greg had helped me clean up by hauling all the tables, chairs, wooden horse holding all the red flashlights for people to use (red lights don't diminish your pupil dilation as it can take up to a half hour to regain your pupil dilation if you look at a bright non-red light), and the three telescopes & binoculars back into my home. After cleanup Greg & I took one last look at how much the night sky had changed from the beginning of the session and a fire ball passed over. I had seen many other shooting stars throughout the session but they were so quick that Greg had not seen them but as this fireball passed over, I said, "Do you see that (as I pointed)?" and Greg said yes. Both our jaws had dropped as that was the brightest fireball I had ever seen. You never know what's going to happen in any given Stargazers session. Greg asked if he could take a telescope home until the next session and I said sure as he wanted to try to figure out the automatic part of that telescope as it was suppose to find the objects in the night sky for you; thousands of them. The school I taught at for 18 years, had owned one of these telescopes in my past and at the time, I couldn't get the telescope to successfully do what it claimed it could do so I was thankful that Greg was going to give it a try.
This was an example of just last night as every Stargazer session has been so unique and rewarding to all those that showed, even if just for a few minutes AND even if it was completely cloudy, sessions were fruitful.
To me, it seemed everyone who showed up tonight were very happy they had. They arrived with smiles and curiosity for night sky knowledge and left when they had to, with thoughts of returning to learn more, and looking up nightly to review what they had learned and apply it to things in their lives, between sessions. I've taught thousands since 1997 the night sky, (as many as over 250 in a single night session). I always find sharing my knowledge of the night sky with others very gratifying. I find Stargazing sessions are a two way street as I learn as much from those in attendance as they learn from me. I still have friends that I stay in touch with, who were students in my Astronomy classes through the years.
I had taught a semester Astronomy class, twice per school year and sometimes a third session in the summer, from 1996-1997 through 2013-2014 with as many as 300 high school students per school year and taught an adult class for the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, the summer of 2003, at the Air Force Academy, an Astronomy course for college credit. I had also written educational Astronomy newspaper articles monthly, for two county newspapers (3 hour drive apart), for over a decade and NASA had hired me to represent all the high school teachers in the nation, on a special Blue Ribbon Panel, to write the "Criteria for the Next Teacher in Space". What that means is that our 8 member, K-16 panel (an elementary teacher from Florida, a Junior High Teacher from St. Louis, myself representing all High School Teachers in North America (I was from Wisconsin), a principal, a superintendent, and a NASA teacher; had the task of figuring out what made the best of the best teachers, as NASA would use our criteria to choose two teachers to train to be Astronauts so they could teach from the International Space Station. The remaining 48 of the top 50 the Space Foundation made the first flight of teacher liaisons and they invited me to be a member of flight 2, 2005, teacher liaisons and I've been a teacher liaison every since. As a teacher liaison, I am available to the public, to teach Space and Night Sky (Astronomy) concepts in exciting ways. I do have four hoops to jump through each year to remain a NASA Space Foundation Teacher Liaison and now that I've been retired, a few of the hoops are tougher to jump through, and that is why I attend the annual National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs as my work with that symposium each year aids me in jumping through those remaining hoops. Each year they induct a new class of Teacher Liaisons (a few dozen), from so many more that apply, to become a teacher liaison, so this year the flight 17-2021 teacher liaisons will be inducted. I get to meet these newly inducted liaisons each year, at the symposium, and share some of my space teaching knowledge with them and learn from them also. If you know a teacher that might be interested in being a teacher liaison, you can have them contact me pkoniche@gmail.com or search for Colorado Springs Space Foundation Teacher Liaison's and get the information online.
As I was setting up when a mother and her son walk up (Let's call them Katy & Nate), all smiles. The sun had just set so it was plenty bright out yet. Katy apologized for not bringing a telescope or binoculars but did bring a chair to sit in. They had actually walked all the from Crimson Sky, the length of Tierra and hung a left down Hazy Hills to just beyond the bridge, were I was setting up, on a concrete section with three metal posts that were folded down and a large commons field that was left, without a house, because of possible flooding.
First we looked for the Moon as it was a New Moon (meaning the moon past under/over the sun) at 2 am that morning so by 8 pm (20 hours later) should have moved 10 degrees east of the setting sun (the moon moves it's diameter [1/2 degree] each hour east) so I had Kati look at my notes, on the card table, to see when the moon was suppose to set as I was off looking for the very young crescent moon. Then, while I was still looking for it, Kati brought up an app on her phone that could see right through the Earth (or houses) and Kati located the moon behind a home on Tierra, so we knew we couldn't see it anymore this night.
Then a neighbor girl showed up, all smiles, and mentioned to Katy that she was in Nate's class. So she just stopped in to say hi to Nate and was needed at home so left again. She had participated the last session with her friends and father during setup.
Then two young men arrived, in a sports car, and asked it they could join us (let's call them Ethan & Parker). It just so happened that the first three stars were visible and I explained that they were called the Winter triangle and their names and meanings and importance to navigation (even today). Nate, for like the fourth time, spoke up and said the most insightful statement. Not everyone understood what Nate said but from my knowledge of Astronomy, every time Nate spoke a higher dimensional thought came out that was so true but would take more time than we had to explain to the whole group. I acknowledge each of Nate's insightful comments and how they did apply in a meaning way to our current situation. More of the brightest stars appeared and the four of them were interested in learning the "sensational celestial six pack", each in a different constellation (region of the sky), their names & meanings. Nate said that they hadn't had supper yet so asked permission to leave and return after supper so Nate & Parker went on their way.
Then a family of four drove up (let's call them Nathan & Stacy and their young daughters, Emily & Ava). Nathan had attended a previous Stargazers and remembered many things that he had learned so I handed him the really bright laser pointer (as he knew it is against the law to aim at airplanes and not to point it at object that it could reflect off as it is harmful to eyes) and Nathan named several of the bright stars to his family and all in attendance. (I was really impressed). I had lost the printout of my notes for the night but Stacy brought them up on her cell phone and Stacy kept track of all the times for the man-made satellites to go over and Stacy was a vital component that session as we did see both a rocket booster and the ISS go through the constellations and stars that she named at exactly the times that she said they would go through, from my notes. Everyone present was surprised how dim the reflection was off the rocket booster compared to the reflection off the solar panels of the International Space Station. We had to look between two roofs across the street and stand down the hill, closer to the ditch, in order to see the star named Shedar (the breast of Cassiopeia, the Queen of the night sky) to see the start of the reflection off the ISS.
All the people present now took turns at looking through both the Headwaters 70 mm telescope and my new 300 mm canon (that's what a neighbor girl called it last session). I had a ladder for Emily & Ava to climb to see through the big telescope but Nathan held up Emily and Stacy held up Ava so they could look through the big telescopes eyepiece at clusters of tens or hundreds of stars and/or nebula. I had Nathan also move through the Milky Way Galaxy slowly as he looked with the big telescope at how many more stars that he could see (thousands) that we could not see at all with our naked eye.
Another man, that has come to at least three other sessions so has learned to use the telescopes and has learned many of the constellations and their star names; let's call him Greg, showed up after 9 pm. Greg has helped me teach families in previous sessions and is so very good with learning from people and teaching people. He had used his app, on his phone, to show previous children the shapes of the constellations as he held his cell phone up, aiming at that region of the sky while at the same time I was outlining them in the sky with the powerful green laser pointer. As a team, everyone present, saw the night sky and a whole new way.
The previous week, Greg had helped me clean up by hauling all the tables, chairs, wooden horse holding all the red flashlights for people to use (red lights don't diminish your pupil dilation as it can take up to a half hour to regain your pupil dilation if you look at a bright non-red light), and the three telescopes & binoculars back into my home. After cleanup Greg & I took one last look at how much the night sky had changed from the beginning of the session and a fire ball passed over. I had seen many other shooting stars throughout the session but they were so quick that Greg had not seen them but as this fireball passed over, I said, "Do you see that (as I pointed)?" and Greg said yes. Both our jaws had dropped as that was the brightest fireball I had ever seen. You never know what's going to happen in any given Stargazers session. Greg asked if he could take a telescope home until the next session and I said sure as he wanted to try to figure out the automatic part of that telescope as it was suppose to find the objects in the night sky for you; thousands of them. The school I taught at for 18 years, had owned one of these telescopes in my past and at the time, I couldn't get the telescope to successfully do what it claimed it could do so I was thankful that Greg was going to give it a try.
This was an example of just last night as every Stargazer session has been so unique and rewarding to all those that showed, even if just for a few minutes AND even if it was completely cloudy, sessions were fruitful.
To me, it seemed everyone who showed up tonight were very happy they had. They arrived with smiles and curiosity for night sky knowledge and left when they had to, with thoughts of returning to learn more, and looking up nightly to review what they had learned and apply it to things in their lives, between sessions. I've taught thousands since 1997 the night sky, (as many as over 250 in a single night session). I always find sharing my knowledge of the night sky with others very gratifying. I find Stargazing sessions are a two way street as I learn as much from those in attendance as they learn from me. I still have friends that I stay in touch with, who were students in my Astronomy classes through the years.
I had taught a semester Astronomy class, twice per school year and sometimes a third session in the summer, from 1996-1997 through 2013-2014 with as many as 300 high school students per school year and taught an adult class for the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, the summer of 2003, at the Air Force Academy, an Astronomy course for college credit. I had also written educational Astronomy newspaper articles monthly, for two county newspapers (3 hour drive apart), for over a decade and NASA had hired me to represent all the high school teachers in the nation, on a special Blue Ribbon Panel, to write the "Criteria for the Next Teacher in Space". What that means is that our 8 member, K-16 panel (an elementary teacher from Florida, a Junior High Teacher from St. Louis, myself representing all High School Teachers in North America (I was from Wisconsin), a principal, a superintendent, and a NASA teacher; had the task of figuring out what made the best of the best teachers, as NASA would use our criteria to choose two teachers to train to be Astronauts so they could teach from the International Space Station. The remaining 48 of the top 50 the Space Foundation made the first flight of teacher liaisons and they invited me to be a member of flight 2, 2005, teacher liaisons and I've been a teacher liaison every since. As a teacher liaison, I am available to the public, to teach Space and Night Sky (Astronomy) concepts in exciting ways. I do have four hoops to jump through each year to remain a NASA Space Foundation Teacher Liaison and now that I've been retired, a few of the hoops are tougher to jump through, and that is why I attend the annual National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs as my work with that symposium each year aids me in jumping through those remaining hoops. Each year they induct a new class of Teacher Liaisons (a few dozen), from so many more that apply, to become a teacher liaison, so this year the flight 17-2021 teacher liaisons will be inducted. I get to meet these newly inducted liaisons each year, at the symposium, and share some of my space teaching knowledge with them and learn from them also. If you know a teacher that might be interested in being a teacher liaison, you can have them contact me pkoniche@gmail.com or search for Colorado Springs Space Foundation Teacher Liaison's and get the information online.
Where does Stargazers meet?
Every week may be a different place. We started out at the HW HUB on the field but the pool lights and outdoor gym lights were shining down on the field. So we moved above the playground where the building blocked those lights but the parking lot lights were in our way. So we moved to outside my home, in a commons field, but now we are lower than the bridge lights and lower than the neighbors porch lights so I'm thinking of trying another place within HW with the least light pollution. To find out anything (including where) concerning Stargazers, I'll always post information in this webpage: smile2340.com under the HW 78620 category as we go.
What are you future goals for Stargazers?
I'm thinking that I want Stargazers to appeal to everyone, no matter what age or knowledge of the night sky they have. I've been told that I have a gift of making difficult concepts easy for others to understand as I can feel where you're at currently, and take you to that next level.
My plans are to start with simple small bites of knowledge and place them in my webpage under the Astronomy tab each week. That way if you miss a Stargazing session, you can read the previous lessons, to catch up to the current session of knowledge of the night sky. Each lesson will start out with a question that I answer so if you'd like to know the answer to that question, you can read it, otherwise you can skip to the next question.
Just think, if I do one question per week, there will be 52 questions answered each year. I will be listening to your questions each Stargazers session, to decide which questions to answer next in my weekly postings, on my Astronomy section, of this webpage: smile2340.com.
I hoping and praying that the entire world can learn from this webpage so I really want to make what I post, meaningful to everyone; no matter age, sex, or nationality as from space station, international Astronauts do not see any borders and they always have a hard time understanding why riots and/or wars are happening on this planet, they are circling every 45 minutes, and we call home?
My plans are to start with simple small bites of knowledge and place them in my webpage under the Astronomy tab each week. That way if you miss a Stargazing session, you can read the previous lessons, to catch up to the current session of knowledge of the night sky. Each lesson will start out with a question that I answer so if you'd like to know the answer to that question, you can read it, otherwise you can skip to the next question.
Just think, if I do one question per week, there will be 52 questions answered each year. I will be listening to your questions each Stargazers session, to decide which questions to answer next in my weekly postings, on my Astronomy section, of this webpage: smile2340.com.
I hoping and praying that the entire world can learn from this webpage so I really want to make what I post, meaningful to everyone; no matter age, sex, or nationality as from space station, international Astronauts do not see any borders and they always have a hard time understanding why riots and/or wars are happening on this planet, they are circling every 45 minutes, and we call home?
Please enjoy learning with me as I start the lessons now, 04/02/2022, in the Astronomy section of this webpage: smile2340.com
Why did you name your webpage: smile2340.com?
Smile was my password to get into my classroom (not the word, but the actual facial expression) for decades and I tried Smile.com and smile1.com and smile2.com, etc. and when I got to smile13.com and it was already taken (because of dentists and other face professionals) I got frustrated and through in my classroom number at the time which was classroom # 2340 at SPASH High School in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Side Note: If you were in the last class I taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, my password was a positive 2nd derivative expression (which is the same thing as a smile).
Side Note: If you search my webpage, you'll find unbelievable diamonds of knowledge hidden all over the webpage. There are even 100's of secret knowledge that you cannot even find anywhere in the cloud, but I purposely hid them in the hardest to find places, so I challenge you to find them and let me know if you do. Enjoy your search.
Side Note: If you were in the last class I taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, my password was a positive 2nd derivative expression (which is the same thing as a smile).
Side Note: If you search my webpage, you'll find unbelievable diamonds of knowledge hidden all over the webpage. There are even 100's of secret knowledge that you cannot even find anywhere in the cloud, but I purposely hid them in the hardest to find places, so I challenge you to find them and let me know if you do. Enjoy your search.