Recent ASNH Activities
by Donna Pursley
Ansonia Nature Center Event, March 28
Bob Carruthers gave a talk to the Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center about stars. There were about 20 people there even though it was snowing out. He talked about the life and death of stars. How they burned, the chemical makeup, and what happens as they age. There were a few children with some very good questions. There would have been viewing if it wasn’t cloudy and snowing.
Discovery Museum Event, March 29
This was the Discovery Museum’s space day. They had different groups at tables with astronomy related topics. One table had some moon rocks. Al Washburn and Greg Barker had the meteorites set up and a table showing large crater sites. Mike Zarick and Donna Pursley were there to help.
Outside there was solar viewing with scopes from the Westport and Booth astronomy clubs along with members from the local Sidewalk Astronomers. The count at 4pm was 1500 people that came to the museum that day.
Bethany Observatory Open House, April 24
It started off very cloudy but the forecast said it was supposed to clear up. Al Washburn had the meteorites set up inside so our visitors had something to see. Just when we were thinking of closing up, the sky cleared. The two scopes were on the Moon, Jupiter and a few deep sky objects. We had a few new members stop by which is always encouraged. There were about 20 visitors in total.
Public Observing at Young’s Pond Park in Branford, April 25
It was a clear night. We started off showing the Moon, Venus and Jupiter. The moons of Jupiter were lined up nicely, and a few of our visitors were able to see them move throughout the night. Al Washburn brought a few meteorites which was a big hit. We had more than a dozen scopes and binoculars. There were a few new members (Thanks!!) and some local amateur astronomers tonight. Over 75 people stopped by with a few staying for long time. We were able to show them the Beehive Cluster (M44), the Sombrero Galaxy, M3 and other deep sky objects.
New Haven Science Fair, May 11-13
There were 234 student finalists competing at the New Haven Science Fair. The program is dedicated to improving the quality of science and math education in the New Haven Schools Grades Pre-K through 12. Very few projects were astronomy-related this year. The ASNH judges didn’t feel that any of the projects merited a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize. We did want to reward those with an enthusiasm towards astronomy with a ‘Certificate of Honor’ prize along with $60 for each group.
Next year, we are going to supply some guidelines to the coordinators of the Science Fair to help guide the students to better astronomy themed projects.
The winners were:
8th grade students Elliot Faulkner and Robert Logan from Edgewood School for their project “Our Project is Crater Then Yours”. This project experimented with different density of balls (comets) falling into flour (planet) and measured the crater.
8th grade student Victor Cotto from Fair Haven School for his project ‘When Worlds Collide”. He also worked with a ball (comet), but changed the substance that was struck by the comet to see how the craters differed.
5th grade students CJ Cicarella, Dillon Ridgway and Anthony Franco from Nathan Hale School. Their project was named “Up Up and a Weight”. They used model rockets with different weights (payloads) to see which would climb highest. One of these students commented on wanting to be an astronaut or to design rockets for transport into space.
The judging was done Monday night without the students and Tuesday morning with the students. The awards were handed out on Wednesday night by ASNH President Greg Barker.
Winners for astronomy-related projects in the 2015 New Haven Science Fair.
Bethany Observatory Open House, May 22
It was a clear day and a clear night. People came by before the 8pm start time. We must have had at least 45-50 visitors. The scopes were on the Moon before it was totally dark. Then they turned to Jupiter and other bright objects since the sky was still too bright for most deep sky viewing. Al Washburn had the meteorites set up inside and people went between the scopes and the meteorites.
Public Observing at Young’s Pond Park in Branford, May 23
Another clear night for viewing. We had a good number of telescopes and binoculars. We didn’t have very many visitors, but the ones that were there stayed a long time. We showed them the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and our first view of Saturn this year. Ray commented that Saturn looked particularly nice. There was a nice pass-by of one of the stars in Cancer with the crescent Moon. This is a good way to show the movement of the Moon to the public. Some of the summer objects like the Ring Nebula made an appearance later in the night.
Ansonia Nature Center Event, June 5
Gaianne Jenkins, a retired mathematician with an interest in paleo-astronomy, gave a talk entitled “The turning of Venus,” about an ancient calendar used as late as the middle ages. This calendar predicts the motions of the Moon and some planets. She focused on the eight phases of Venus and the ancient five seasons of the year. The calendar explained a lot about how we see Venus in the sky. On the night of this talk Venus was near maximum eastern elongation, turning from the phase of the lake to the phase of the earth, and we will be changing seasons from spring to high summer. After the talk, even though the sky was mostly cloudy, we were able to view Venus and Jupiter through telescopes. Venus showed as a bright crescent half disc.
Outreach at the Amity Girl Scout Camporee in Oxford, June 6
This is the first time since I have been in the club that we have been invited to provide star gazing for Girl Scouts. We have been to multiple Boy Scout events. It was a mid-sized field with tall trees around the edges. We had 5 scopes and 1 pair of binoculars set up. We started looking at Venus before it was dark because it was setting at our location. We showed the girls Jupiter with 4 nicely placed moons. When it became dark, the girls were able to see double stars, star clusters, galaxies, and the Ring Nebula. Later, we were able to show them Saturn’s rings. The girls and adults were very polite with lots of thank-you’s. This event showed how well everything works when the adults explain the rules to the kids beforehand. Most knew about not using white flashlights. Also, most where studying astronomy in school so they had a little knowledge which made the questions more interesting.