开云体育

Sess.#287 7:30-10:00pm Almonte Public Library s=7/10 lm=4.5

A very satisfying sidewalk observing session. Al Seaman set things up
for this session by checking out the site for viewing angles for the
gas planets, and posting notices at various places in Almonte.

Richard Harding, Mike Wirths, Attilla Danko, Janice and myself joined
Al and set up our scopes in the public library's parking lot just
after sunset. The scopes were, in ascending order of
apeture/complexity: a Traveller refractor( 4" ?), an 8" Dob, a SCT
8", a SCT 10", and a 18" truss-tube (with GoTo and tracking). A good
cross-section of scopes of different types, apetures, prices,
capabilities, etc.

Somewhere between 30 - 35 persons of all ages looked through these
scopes. The average stay of each individual was about 30 minutes,
with some staying much less, but many staying with us for most
of the evening, trying out all the different scopes in turn and asking
many interesting questions.

One feature that made this session more fun than the usual sidewalk
session in an Ottawa shopping mall was that the sky showed stars down
to magnitude 4.5, even from the parking lot. This permitted us to find
and show more targets than usual. Also, the seeing wasn't too bad,
coming in at around 7/10. We showed:

Jupiter, Saturn, M42, M3, the Pleiades, the Beehive, Eskimo Neb., M82,
as well as the following binary stars Castor, Gamma Leonis, and
Polaris (very popular target!). I may have missed some, because I
wasn't at each scope, but you get the general idea.

The people who came to catch a peek were friendly and on average much
more informed about astronomy than a typical mall crowd. At one
point, Attilla suggested I make use of his laser pointer to "point
out" a few things in the sky. A very useful tool, that.

Richard even assisted one woman, who had stayed for maybe an hour,
to find Jupiter for herself using his 8" dob. With a bit of coaching
by him, she was able to find it repeatedly, much to her delight.
Mike's scope was a big hit with the GOTO capability. It made finding
things alot easier. Janice answered questions, showed photos and
maps, and ran the scopes when we were busy. All of us had a good,
quality time.

My favourite quote of the night? One young girl got her first look at
the rings of Saturn. Whilst still keeping her eye on the target, she
stood on the tips of her toes, raised her arms to either side (like
Saturn's anses, I guess), and then performed a little hopping
dance of pure excitement while saying: "That is so-o-o-o COOL!" I
think maybe we should call it the Saturn dance!...

So thanks, Almonte, for having us over!
and thanks Al for setting it up!

Roland

r.prevost@... wrote:

Sess.#287 7:30-10:00pm Almonte Public Library s=7/10 lm=4.5

A very satisfying sidewalk observing session. [...etc...]

I thought it was a great session, and as always, Rolland, a great
report on the evening.

So thanks, Almonte, for having us over!
and thanks Al for setting it up!

And on behalf of Almonte, my thanks to the rest of you who came out -
your knowledge, experience and equipment contributed to a very
successful event. As for setting it up, it is always a pleasure to
set up something that turns out so well.

Thanks again to all.

Cheers - Al

--- In OAFs@y..., Al Seaman <alseaman@a...> wrote:

And on behalf of Almonte, my thanks to the rest of you who came

out -

your knowledge, experience and equipment contributed to a very
successful event. As for setting it up, it is always a pleasure to
set up something that turns out so well.

Thanks again to all.

Cheers - Al

Thanks Al.

I think Almonte side walk sessions is a very good idea. All users
of FLO have a interest in keeping the skies dark there. Some of
the light pollution problem at FLO is from Almonte. Sidewalk
seesions is are good way to get people to be aware that there is
such a thing as light pollution. It can only help when someone
tries to address the Almonte city council. (I understand that
Hilderic may have had plans to do so.)

I'm disinclined to get involved in municipal politcs myself. But
I'm happy to support other peoples sidewalk astronomy sessions.

-ad

attilla.danko@... wrote:

I think Almonte side walk sessions is a very good idea. All users
of FLO have a interest in keeping the skies dark there. Some of
the light pollution problem at FLO is from Almonte. Sidewalk
seesions is are good way to get people to be aware that there is
such a thing as light pollution. It can only help when someone
tries to address the Almonte city council. (I understand that
Hilderic may have had plans to do so.)

Actually, one of my unstated goals in this sessions and my prior
one in Almonte is to get more grass roots interest in astronomy and more
awareness of the consequences of light pollution. A parallel goal is
to get the local municipality to adopt some form of public lighting
standards. Grass roots support on the issue translates to a more
responsive municipal council.

With help from Hilderic and Pat Browne we plan to start the process
with the municipality shortly. I'm currently doing a bit of background
homework that has been delayed a bit by other commitments. In this
politicing game it is worth taking a bit longer and doing it right rather
than doing it quick and dirty and probably having your request ignored
or shot down.

I'm disinclined to get involved in municipal politcs myself. But
I'm happy to support other peoples sidewalk astronomy sessions.

I understand your reluctance about politics, but I do appreciate your
support on the sidewalk.

Cheers - Al