This past Sunday (7/10/22), ASSNE supported an outreach event with the Buzzards Bay Coalition. We did some early-evening summer viewing at The Bogs in Mattapoisett, MA. I was there from ASSNE (with 2 outreach scopes -- a 5" dob and my 6" dob), and we had 12-15 visitors. We started with solar viewing using my solar projection funnel and then shifted to the moon.
- Perfect sky for observing from the bogs.
- IMG_3295.jpg (91.32 KiB) Viewed 2270 times
- Sunspot viewing until the sun dipped behind a handful of horizon clouds.
- IMG_3293.jpg (86.14 KiB) Viewed 2270 times
- Some of the students who took over scope pointing once we shifted to the moon.
- IMG_3292.jpg (170.42 KiB) Viewed 2270 times
I found it a bit of a challenge to keep two scopes pointed properly, but I quickly realized that two of the middle-school students were able to quickly pick up on operation of the scopes and figured out how to use the finders to keep them pointed at the moon. And that made things much easier once they took over keeping the scopes pointed at the moon.
One of the families there was from Alaska, and they entertained us with stories about how they were able to see Aurora Borealis from their front lawn, and we were able to use the solar images to make the connection with sunspots.
It was a fun event, and we will be scheduling more with them in the future.
- Mark
