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The
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society held Astronomy Day 2002 in conjunction
with Free
Admission Day at the Kalamazoo Nature Center on Saturday, June
22. This was
our second consecutive year holding Astronomy Day at the Nature Center
and it was as successful as last year.
An estimated 2500 people visited the Nature Center; up 1000 from last
year.
However, traffic in our area did seem a little lower than last
year. The blame has to be place on the
hot and humid weather. The KAS is very
fortunate to have some of the most dedicated membership any astronomy
club has
ever seen! The KAS did make sure to have
plenty of fluids available to beat the heat!
Setup
for our annual event actually began the night before as Richard Bell, Jack Price,
and Kerry Robbert met at the
Nature Center to begin setting up our main
structures. Kerry helped Jack setup his large canopy,
which would once again serve as our hands-on area. Richard setup
his canopy for the greeting
area. They also measured and marked the
position of the planets for our scale model of the solar system.
KAS
members began arriving at the Nature Center as early as 8:00 am.
Among the first to arrive were Bill
DeSavage and Rick Shields.
Unfortunately,
Bill could only assist with setup because he had to return home because
his
mother-in-law was ill. On behalf of the
KAS, we wish her a full and speedy recovery.
Gradually, more and more KAS member arrived for an exciting day of
sharing our love of astronomy with others.
As
with every KAS Astronomy Day, one of our most popular attractions is
solar
observing. Richard Bell started out
sharing views of sunspots with our 12” Schmidt-Cassegrain in Owl
Observatory
until Dave Garten arrived and
filled
in the majority of the day. Mike
Sinclair once again setup his
trusty 8” LX10 and Mark Miller
brought his 8” LX200. Rich
Mather ended the SCT-only club by
bringing his new short tube VernonScope refractor that he bought at the
Texas
Star Party. Bill Nigg
then wowed visitors and members alike with
razor-sharp
views of sunspots and solar granulation through his 5” Astro-Physics
refractor.
The
featured hands-on activity this year was the Moon Phase Flip
Book. As usual, our hands-on activity was a big hit
with the kids and parents, but it would not have been possible without
KAS
volunteer support. Carol Morin
deserves all the credit for
gathering all the necessary
materials and working the hands-on tables the entire day. The
morning hands-on crew consisted of Dave
Andrews, Angela Brooks,
Jack
Price, Kerry Robbert, and Rick Shields. This was the first
Astronomy Day for Dave and
Angela and they said they had a great time helping the kids make their
Flip
Books. Several of our morning crew,
including Jack, Kerry, and Rick stayed to help out in the afternoon as
well. Matt Cook (his
first Astronomy Day as well) and Chris
Roberts gave a helping hand the
rest of the afternoon. Once again, thank
you to all that sacrificed part of their weekend to help make our
hands-on
activity a great success.
A
big part of past Astronomy Day events was the displays and this year
was no
different. The astrophotography display
was better than even last year! We’re
very fortunate to have so many gifted astrophotographers in the
KAS. Special thanks to Richard Bell, Jason Blaschka, Dave Garten, Dave Moore, Bill
Nigg, and Dave Woolf for
allowing us to display
their best work. Jason deserves extra
credit for watching over the astrophotography display the entire day.
We
decided to give our one-quarter scale model of Stonehenge a break this
year and do something new.
After Richard Bell and Jean
DeMott took the “Pluto Walk” at Lowell Observatory in May they decided
to
do something similar. They built their
own scale walk through the solar system.
Richard wrote and designed the signs, while Jean figured out a way to
display them. Of course Jack Price and
Kerry Robbert got stuck setting up the display at the beginning of the
day. Hey, Richard and Jean can’t do everything! The KAS
“Planet Walk” was a big success;
several people traveled faster than light (at least by scale) through
the solar
system. You don’t realize how close the
terrestrial planets are compared to the gas giants until you see it in
a scale
model.
Jean
DeMott passed out KAS literature and “Getting Started” guide provided
by Sky & Telescope at the
greeting
table. Beverly Byle and Frank
Severance gave a helping hand at the greeting area as
well. I do
believe we picked up at least one new
KAS member during the day, but more importantly we publicized the KAS
and
astronomy in general, which is what Astronomy Day is all about.
Where
would Astronomy Day be without a night of observing under the
stars? A handful of KAS members came back out to the
Nature Center for our regularly scheduled public observing
session. Unfortunately, one of the bad things about
holding Astronomy Day at the same time of month every year is that
we’ll have
to contend with the Moon on occasion.
Last year we had excellent, Moon free conditions, so this year we were
stuck with a fat Gibbous Moon. To make
matters worse, there was still a lot of humidity in the air. We
did sneak in a few good views here and
there. Richard manned the 12” LX200 in
Owl Observatory and Mike Sinclair setup his 8” LX10 again. Kerry
Robbert brought out his nice 6”
off-axis reflector. Too bad there were
no planets visible, but that little scope gives razor sharp planetary
images. We’ll have darker conditions for Astronomy
Day 2003. See you then!
Report
and photographs by Richard S. Bell
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![[Astronomy Day 2002]](Images/AD2K2/AD2K2.jpg)
