This event was light on astronomy (some solar views), but was done in cooperation with our partners at St Charles County Parks Department.  Someday we may see more of an alliance with local birder organizations.   Our thanks to the participants who shared their time serving the public in the cold. - - Jim T

======================
2/16/2013
Marc Arnold, David Lloyd, John Sgouros, and I were there this morning.   Cold & windy might best describe it.  I was less than a thrill to see ice forming on the shoreline of the river.   Kathy Arnold was there, but was too cold, left for a while, and then came back.  The wind was about 15 mph out of the NW.  We set up between the parking lot and river so we could focus on the island and Illinois.  I'm guessing that we saw about 10 birds and three spent a good deal of time perched so the optics were on them most of the time.  Surprise, most of the time the birds were on our side of the river and we rarely were focused on the Illinois side.

John pushed ASEM and FNOHs and passed out quite a few business cards.   After 2 1/2 hours last night, getting up early this morning, the cold, and wind, I pretty much sat.

Nancy & Betty from the Parks Department were both there as were about 100 people.   I get the impression from talking to Nancy that we'll be asked back next year and they'll include us in the flyer.

Mark & I both had our dobs & binos, David had binos, and John had two refractors.  Some where along the line I mentioned solar filter.  John had one in his car and put it on one of his scopes.  It was a good idea because we didn't always have an eagle present.   For future reference, SCTs would be better than Newts because our birds perched on their heads;-) and the lower eyepiece location meant that my scope was often blocked by cars in the lot..  We had Newts/Dobs because we both were too lazy to unpack & repack from the FNOH less than nine hours earlier.

It's tough to do something Friday night and then on Saturday morning!

- - Steve B

			[The weather was warm, but the clouds rolled in on this event - JT.]

Great night! 

The kids were excited just to see the telescopes and your members did a nice job talking to them about the parts etc.  We took a couple if pics, but the teacher left her camera at home today.  I will send them to you as soon as I get them.

I also sent out a thank you email to parents with an invitation to your next public viewing.  Hopefully, you will see some of our kids!

Thank you so much for helping us out!  We learned a lot this first time, so next time we will be more prepared.

Dave Gentili

As the guys probably told you, we were completely clouded out after about 30 minutes.  We told a lot of people about Friday evenings at BPO and let them know about asemonline.org.

I had brought my 10" Dob.  So I spent the remaining time at the school showing people their beautiful faces in a 10" mirror with red light.  This seemed to please people.

David is a part-time staff with the St. Louis franchise of the Challenger Center.  It might be good for ASEM to get to know these folks.  Their focus is on school-age kids and classroom activities.

Amy White

=========================

A quick report...

I got to the school about 5:30 pm and Amy was already set up in the SE corner of the lot.  John and Stacey were there by 6.  People started to arrive about 5:45 pm in twilight and got views of Jupiter.   You could see clouds in the west and the kept getting closer and closer.  We were able to align with Capella and Aldebran.  John (I think) and I managed to get M45 in our scopes. Eventually M45 clouded out and I guessed correctly that M38 would be possible.  After about 5 minutes it was gone too.  We were pretty much done by 6:30 pm.

We kept on pushing ASEM, FNOHs, Beginner Meetings for the rest of the night.  Stacey  & John were gone by 7:15pm and Amy & I by 7:45.

Amy & I guessed that there were around 200 kids and parents. I'm going with that number for the count unless you want to get a number from the school contact.

Everyone was very complimentary & expressed thanks for us coming.

Steve Boerner

Well it was interesting. Indian Camp Creek would be a pretty good observing site. John's guess was 70 kids and adults looked through our scopes.  I had my scope on Alberio, and (later on) Jupiter when it got about 10 degrees off the horizon, it looked like a big Mars it was so red in the scud, but there were only a few groups I did this with. I also pointed out Cygnus, and let them look at the Milky Way and the Pleiades with my binoculars. They seemed to enjoy that as much as looking through the scope. I think Chuck had M13, John may have had M31---my guess. I doubt if there was anyone that didn't thank me and say they had enjoyed the experience. I'm sure it was the same for John and Chuck. A real feel-good moment.

Pam was a pleasure to work with.   Marv S

We dodged a few clouds this morning, but managed to give views to every class
that came out, some more than others. Eddie Agha provided views from the Lunt
Ha scope. Amy White used the projection method with her dob, and I had a filter
on my 8" SCT.

The first group that came out at 9am was TWO classes, which was hurried. All
the rest (8 half-hour sessions total) were just one class.  Those single classes got some "seconds" if the skies were mostly clear.  Class sizes probably
averaged 25+, so for nine classes (and including teachers) we had 235 by my
estimate.

Our program began at 9:00am and ended at 1:30pm.  The school provided lunch food and water for us during the half-hour break at noon. We got a lot of 'thank-you's' to go along with the typical "wow's" and "cool!"'s. 

Jim T.

This event was handled by Dave Lloyd, Marv Stewart, and myself.  Dave Lloyd brought the club's 14" StarMaster dob,  Marv had his 8" dob, and I wielded my 8" SCT.  The group of 30 were still in meetings (with dinner) when we arrived and set up.  They came out around 8:30pm and hung out and talked astronomy and looked thru the 3 scopes until 10pm.  We showed them the Moon, Albireo, M57 (Ring nebula), M8 (Lagoon nebula), M13 (Glob) M22 (Glob), M27 (Dumbbell neb), M31 (Andromeda galaxy), and the Veil supernova remnant, among others.

We had set up on the Northeast end of the conference center, staff parking lot.  They managed to shut off the parking lot lights for us, which helped tons. 

This was a small group, but it was for our friends at St Charles County Parks, and we were very glad to provide the evenings' entertainment.  We were offered (and accepted!) some of the food and drink that was available.  The event was friendly, educated, and (of course) appreciated.

Jim T

Dave with the StarMaster

In a type of a "first" for our Outreach, we took on THREE large "away" events in just one evening.  Rain had cancelled the previous nights' plans at two of these camps, and we had volunteers enough to give a decent show to all three. 

Camp#1:    LEWIS & CLARK ELEMENTARY @ Camp Cuivre  


"Lynn and I had about 100 kids and adults viewing with us. We started out with a deer feeding in the field while we set up. Lynn tracked M13 with the Coulter all evening while I showed Albireo, Alcor & Mizar and M31 in the 110mm refractor. A couple was showing reptiles inside while groups came out to view. It all worked well. We packed up and headed for home a little before 10:00 pm."

John Sgorous


Camp #2:  FORREST PARK ELEMENTARY @ Camp Sherwood

I crossed paths with a very young doe (a spotless fawn) on the way to the campground, near Camp Cuivre.  The sun had started to set, which made the sky bright on the hilltops while being very dark in the valleys and in the shaded glades.

Tom Richards and I took on the largest camp, 6 classes of 5th graders for 140 total.  Tom had his 8" f/6 reflector and I had both my 8" SCT and the 16" f/4.5 dob.  With three pieces of equipment we could take on 30 kids at a time, platoon-fashion.  I "borrowed" a teacher (Diana) to stand at the 8" SCT and tell the kids about Mars and the Ring Nebula.   We got started at 7:45 with views of the moon, Mars, and Albireo early on.  Later views included M8, M13, M22, M31, M57 and the Double Cluster.  The night was nearly perfect, somewhat cool, no bugs or mosquitoes, and very clear skies.  We pointed out the Milky Way to the kids, almost half of which had never seen it before. 

The Lagoon Nebula and the Andromeda galaxy could be seen easily with the naked eye.  Constellations were also occasionally pointed out, as was a very bright (-6 mag) Iridium Flare around 8:47pm.  We finished up with the kids at 9:40 and gave quick looks of several objects to two late teachers, finishing at 9:45pm.  Tom and I then enjoyed a quick peek at the Veil Nebula, which was nearly straight up.  With the 2" OIII in place, it may have been the best I've ever seen it.  Not only was the 'broom' end of the witches' broom filled out like lace, it was also showing many small arcs within the lace very nicely.  It was quite breathtaking.

Local light issues are a minimum at this camp, but this year we had more issues with flashlights unfortunately.  As it was a dark and moonless night, teachers deemed them necessary but unfortunately had a hard time keeping them pointed at the ground.  Unless you are dark-adapted and on the receiving end, it is difficult to impress people on how this actually causes pain to others.  Overall the kiddos and teachers were well-behaved and appreciative of the views we provided.  We found the gates to the camp closed upon leaving around 10:20, but they were not locked, and we let ourselves out and put the gates back as we found them.

Jim Twellman

Camp #2 - continued

I will give a brief report for Jim T, since he is at Klondike tonight, and I was with him at Camp Sherwood, last night.

All I can say is, WOW, did the skies open up for a great star show out in the country!  The kids had a blast and so did we.  Jim had his 16 dob and C8, and I had my trusty 8 inch newt.  The camp coordinating counselor staffed Jim's C8.  Objects shown were the same, including the crescent Moon at the beginning and the Lagoon Nebula in Jim's Dob with a OIII filter.  The seeing was just terrific we thought.   At the end, Jim and I did a short bit of private observation, including the Veil Neb with Jim's OIII filter, to which both Jim and I felt that the view was one of the best visually we had ever seen of the Veil.  The filaments and where they split was easily seen. 

After each group, counselors also expressed interest in the club, public viewing at Broemmelsiek, and several expressed interest in building or acquiring a scope.

Was truly another great experience for both us and the kids, who were fortunate to have such great skies while camping up there.  I am sure glad I pushed to get there after work and dinner (it was just in time by the way: immediately after setting up and I was told "look out, here they come").

Hope I can do it again soon,
Tom R

John with his 110mm refractor setup.

Deer, what deer?  (Way to go Lynn!)



Camp #3 - DARDENNE PRAIRIE ELEMENTARY - Camp Derricotte
[Marv Stewart and Bill Jones managed two scopes for this camp.   -- JT]

"Bill and I had a good evening with the fifth graders. About eight o"clock they came out in two groups of about thirty each. Twenty five kids and five counselors and teachers per group. They stayed at either Bill's telescope or mine. I showed them M15 and Mizar, Bill had M 13 and the Lagoon in his. I pointed out the Constellations of Cygnus, Cassiopeia and Pegasus.
 
We found the groups very respectful and interested. Almost all the kids took their time looking and all expressed amazement. I was concerned without the Moon or planets we would be over their head and lose them, but this was not the case. Several came back for "seconds'.

All in all it was very enjoyable.

One note of caution, the grassy area below the volleyball court is a mess. They have put in a city water line, and where they dug is muddy and there is a lot of fist sized rock and brick lying around to stumble over in the dark. I would advise setting up on the volley ball court for now."

Marv