We need your help - school Astronomy night

[Regolith]

Hi all I am a science teacher at a high school in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. We are holding an astronomy night on Friday 8th August for students, parents and friends of the community.

Last year we had approximately 500 people attend but not enough telescopes so we would really love your help :)

If any of you are interested in bringing your telescopes then I would love to hear from you.

Best regards
Ed

[GeoffW1]

Hi Ed,

I can assist. I have a C8 on a tracking mount, and experience on these nights too, at Wiley Park High and Randwick Girls' High. Good fun.

Saturn and Mars will be well situated high in the West I see.

The moon will be high in the NE and nearly full that night, but still, we can look at that also.

Cheers

Geoff

[Regolith]

Hi Geoff

:) Sounds great! Now as an Ice in Space noob how do we go about contacting each other?

BTW the more the merrier for if anymore are interested in helping out please let me know.

Thanks
Ed

[mental4astro]

Hi Ed,

I may be able to help out that night too.

I'll send you a Private Message (PM) as soon as I'm done this this reply. You should notice either a pop-up telling you that you have mail, and/or there will be a flashing note in the top right margin notifying you of unread mail. Not difficult at all to navigate.

I've also helped out at many school viewing nights, many of those with Geoff too, ;) . I love doing these school viewing nights. What school is this being held at?

Cheers,

Alex.

[GeoffW1]

Hi Ed,

As Alex says, you can use the Private Message facility at top right of your login. It is known here as doing a PM, and you can also use it by left-clicking on the username of a member, then selecting "Send message" and "Send a PM", at left of the member info window.

Cheers

[Regolith]

Thanks very much Geoff I will send you a pm a little later today :)

Spoke to Alex too and I am very happy to hear that there are such knowledgable and passionate astronomers like you guys willing to help out!

Best regards
Ed

[killswitch]

Hi Ed

I can probably come and assist too. Which school is it?

[mental4astro]

Hi Ed, the school is Ascham at Edgecliff.

[Wavytone]

Hi Regolith, should be able to make it as well.

Question: is this aimed at a specific group of students, eg those studying astronomy as part of the syllabus, if so what age group ? Is there a particular theme of interest ?

[Regolith]

Hi Wavytone

Great stuff! I will pm you later today.

It is not aimed at a particular group of students but the wider school community (parents and high school students across two schools).

There will be a guest speaker on the night as well as finger food and a group of students playing strings.

The talk is about the search for extra terrestrial intelligence.

Best regards
Ed

[Wavytone]

Ok... that leads to the search for stars with habitable planets, for several reasons - not the least of which is to pin down one more factor in the Drake Equation. Hopefully the speaker will come to that. Leads on to many more contemporary (serious) aspects, not the "Steven Spielberg" stuff.

[GeoffW1]

Yes,

I'd like to hear him speak.

Prof Paul Davies , an Aussie and current chair of the "SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup", has written "The Eerie Silence" (2010), a very good book in which he argues that we may have gotten wrong the whole premise and methodology of SETI. So I think it is a hot topic despite us hearing nothing.

Cheers

[Wavytone]

Weather isn't looking so good - when is the drop- dead time for a go/no-go decision ? Before school finishes ?

FWIW satellite image shows a solid deck of low-level cloud over NSW and into SA which implies it's unlikely to clear before midday Saturday.

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

Bump - I'm also watching the weather radar.

Cheers

[mental4astro]

How about we make the call for 4pm?

[mental4astro]

Ok, making the call - we are on for tonight. If this turns out to be a big sucker hole I won't be impressed...

[GeoffW1]

On the way

[killswitch]

Aight see you guys there

[Wavytone]

Turned out to be a very pleasant night - the only spoiler being a bit too much moonlight.

[Regolith]

A big thank you on behalf of our school to Nick, Alex, Geoff, Ed and Peter for enthusing young minds and adults alike. The telescope viewing was a big hit. You guys rock!

Hope you can do the same again next year,hopefully when the moon is smaller.

:)