Recent ASNH Activities
by Donna Pursley
Regional Water Company Private Event on Saturday, April 5
It had been windy that day but it was supposed to be less windy by nightfall. It was extremely windy where we usually set up right off the lake. Some members moved to a sheltered area behind the trees and the rest of us followed. The viewing was better than we have seen in a long time at a public event.
For planets, we were able to see Jupiter with two moons and bands and Mars. The moon was very bright but we were still able to view many star clusters and nebula, even near the moon. There was an enthusiastic crowd, even some who knew a little astronomy.
We arrived around 7pm to have time to set up while it was still light out. Club members attending were Ray Kaville, Jim Mazur, Don Straka, Don Filer, Joe Trerotola, Greg Barker, Mike Zarick and Donna Pursley.
As the sky darkens, ASNH members set up their telescopes at Lake Gaillard.
New Haven Science Fair 2014
The Astronomical Society of New Haven is one of the “Special Awards” presenters for the Science Fair. This year’s Science Fair took place at the Yale Commons Hall on Monday May 12th through Wednesday May 14th.
There were about 211 booths, each one representing a student entry. The ages of the students start with Kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade. They can enter as an individual, a team or a class. There is a good representation from many schools in New Haven.
On Monday night, we looked at all the booths to evaluate the projects to see which were astronomy related. The students were not there during this time. This night was reserved for just the judges to review and narrow down their choices of possible winners. We narrowed it down to three.
On Tuesday, those that could make it showed up at 9 am. Then the students arrived by busload to stand by their projects. We discussed the projects with the students to determine how well they knew the subject and their understanding of what they had accomplished. Then we decided who deserved 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
On Wednesday Night, our president, Greg Barker, handed out the awards and the checks to the winners. The checks that were awarded were:
First place winners
1st place – $200 plus Faces of the Moon book and wheel chart authored by Bob Crelin.
Davis Street Magnet School 3rd Grade class – teacher Waltrina Kirkland-Mullins.
Project titled “What’s Phasing Us: A Fascinating Lunar Discovery!”
Second place winners
2nd place – $175
7th Grade team of Victor Cotto and William Arroyo from Fair Haven School.
Project titled “Mighty Meteorites”
Third place winners
(Photos by Paul Hyndman)
3rd place – $125
7th Grade team of Elliot Faulkner and Robert Logan from Edgewood Magnet School.
Project titled “Melting Comets”
The judges this year were Leo Taylor, Paul Hyndman, Al Washburn, Greg Barker, Allan Sacharow, Mike Zarick and Donna Pursley. This is a fun event to see all the projects that the students come up with each year. It is great to see the excitement that the children have towards their projects. This is a very rewarding event.
Bethany Open House on Friday, June 6
We haven’t had many public events this year due to the weather so it was exciting to actually have an event at Bethany.
The night started with two of the observatories opened up, the Clark and the Thomas Eustace scope. Ray Kaville was operating the Clark and Greg was operating the Thomas Eustace. Al Washburn brought the meteorites and was showing them to the public in the main building. Bob Carruthers and Gan were helping to park cars. Donna Pursley had the club’s iPAD set up between the two scope buildings and had a few free astronomy apps going. Other members that were there to help out were Don Straka, Jim Mazur, Laurie Averill, Mike Zarick and Joe Trerotola.
A few families started arriving about 7:30. Since it wasn’t dark yet, we kept them busy with the meteorites, the iPAD and the scopes pointed at the moon. Even though it was still daylight, there were still many features to see on the lunar surface.
As other families started to show up, Dave Johnson opened up the dome. This is always to the delight of all the people there. As soon as the scope’s door was heard opening, everyone wanted to go look through the dome’s scope. Dave operated the dome scope for the rest of the night.
For the night, the public was able to see the moon, Mars, Saturn (including the rings), M13 and a few other deep sky objects. The kids really enjoyed playing with the iPAD astronomy apps to see the constellations that were in the sky. Many were surprised to learn that the big dipper was really a bear with a long tail.
We had about 50 people there during the night. The last to leave was around 10:30pm. It was a successful night with clear skies and a decent crowd.