Kids viewing night: what to show them?

[kinetic]

Hi all,

My daughter has blabbed to her teacher that Dad has an observatory
and a few big scopes.
The teacher is a really decent bloke and wants to organise a night
over our place to see a few objects and have a look at the obs
with the kids in the class.
It would be a thrill mainly for my daughter and her brother to have
all these kids over but for me it sounds a bit daunting.
I would appreciate any advice on how to manage such a crowd.:sadeyes:

A few points about the night we have discussed so far:

A week night is out of the question with astr-twilight being so late
so it will be a friday night in the next 3 or so weeks.

The moon would be a huge hit but this leaves out next fri night.
Jupiter would be a hit too but I have it hidden behind massive gum trees
at sunset, so that rules that out too.
Saturn...out....morning object..as is Venus.
That pretty much leaves things like views of M42, Omega Cent and Eta Car in the 12", 8" and ED80.
That and a few good multiple stars .

Can anyone suggest any more objects that, from experience would
add to the experience?
As a starting point the Event calendar (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/calendar) is no help...just a blank page.:rolleyes:
Not good PR for the biggest amateur Astro site in the Southern Hemisphere! :)
Just kidding!...that would be a nightmare page to keep current.

These kids will be my daughter's age group...8,9 y/os.
I have done this before but only with family friends and their kids...
I'm stressed!:D HEEEEELLLLPP!

Steve

[gary]

Hi Steve,

First of all well done!

Whenever we have done sky tours where there are children in the group, a common
request I hear is "Can we look at that star over there?". You and I know
that when we entertain such a request on some arbitrary star that they are likely to be happy but not
exactly blown away. What I then find is that if you point with your finger
to a naked eye star and say, "See that star there?", then they will all say "Yeah...",
then you say "It is actually two stars very close together. Here have a look!".
And you then show them Alpha Centauri or Alpha Crux, which solicits a "Wow!" from
all of them every time and consumes another 15 minutes as you show each of them
in the queue. :thumbsup:

Good luck with the night and I am sure they will all think you some sort of hero
and in fact you are for doing this. Give yourself a pat on the back at the end of the night.

Best Regards

Gary

[kinetic]

Thanks Gary,

that is the sort of advice I need mate! How to outsmart kids and
stay in charge of things!
I know a good list of objects but it's how to present them that
bothers me...for public outreach people it would be second nature...
like a well rehearsed performance :) I can see mine being a
B grade flop :)

Steve

[michaellxv]

Steve,

When up in the Flinders about 18 months ago there was a gentleman giving tours of the sky and a look through his telescope so I took the family out for a look. Without putting any pressure on you the presentation was very good and went something like this.

Start with a visual tour of the sky.

Ask them what they can see. Find out what they already know.

How many planets are there? How many can you see tonight? (Don't forget to count Earth). Even if you can't do Jupiter through your telescope, point out where it is.

Talk about the constellations that you can see. Crux is a must. Point out the bright stars in each.

Show them where the milky way is - this is OUR galaxy.

If you can see them, point out the LMC & SMC.

Even if you only get half the class to come thats at least a dozen kids plus parents. Not a lot of time for each at the scope so you won't need too many objects lined up to fill the time.

I would suggest one of each category. This will take more than enough time to fill the attention span of 9yo's.

A double star. - Alpha Crux
A coloured star - Betelguese
A globular cluster - 47Tuc or omega Centuari whichever you can see
An open cluster - Jewel box, M45
A bright nebula - M42
Finaly blind them with the moon :D

And tell them to bring binos if they have them.

[mental4astro]

Kids astro night :scared2: !

Cool!

If you have a laser pointer, you can show them some of the constellations and the sky-lore that relates to them. Even the significance of the Southern Cross to some aboriginal people as representing a stingray.

You can point out how the colour of stars represents different stages of stellar development. Betelgeuse, Rigel, Sirius, Alpha Centauri (as mentioned by Gary) are all good examples of stellar sizes, types and ages.

If the session is in the early evening, satellites are often easy to spot. Check to see if the ISS will be visible on your planned night! It happened to me on one kids session I held at my wife's school. Marvelous.

With M42, make a point of the "Fish Mouth" which is a dark pillar that is hiding one or several proto-stars. And that the Trapesium is an cluster of screaming hot new stars that are the main source of the illumination of the nebula. Oh, and as a triple whammy, also point out that the shape of the nebula is essentially clam-shell like, which is the shock-wave effect of the Trapesium.

If you have a little astro-cam, keep it handy. If the Moon is up, you will be surprised at how WOWED the kids will be as kids these days seem to related better to a screen than seen with their own eyes.

I took my scope to a kids hospice last year. All the kids that night were restricted to motorised wheel chairs, and none of them would have been able to reach an eyepiece, no matter what scope was being used. I had packed my little web-cam conversion and my laptop. Best thing I could have done! We only looked at the Moon and Saturn over the next four hours, but it was amungst the most enjoyable astro sessions I've ever had. For the kids to see the Moon and Saturn is a hoot. To have them see you tweek the scope and have the image moveabout makes the experience even better.

If you haven't delt with groups of kids before, talk to them, not at them. They are more switched on than we think, and even 4 year olds can understand abstract physics principles better than many adults.

How would you feel about letting the teacher take charge of one of the scopes? It will be a load off your mind and the teacher will get a kick. The moon is a good, "easy" target for a novice to be in charge of.

Mental.

[ballaratdragons]

My experience with showing kids the sky is that they are really happy seeing at least 3 objects.

After that it starts to become a bit 'ordinary' to them.

I actually have more success and more fun (for me and them) with kids in the day time in their classroom!
Most of them get fascinated just looking at the gear.

You don't need to wait until its pitch black. By the time you have wow'ed them by showing them your great gear and a short talk (and pointing out) about what is up there it starts getting dark enough to show a bright object (Jewelbox, or 47tuc etc).
By the time they have ALL looked, its will be even darker. Go to another object.
Again, by the time they have ALL had a look, it should be pretty dark. Then go for the fainter of your selected targets.

It may be hard with other kids that you don't know, but you need to make it fun. Don't befuddle them with statistics like, "that is a main sequence star and is 36,000 light years away at an apparent magnitude of 0.46".

Put it in simple terms, but only if they ask. If they don't ask, don't tell them. Simple.

*Important - Don't try answer all 37 questions at the same time each minute.
Get the teacher to control all their questions and let him ask the main ones for them. But tell your answer to them, not him.

Have fun, and make it fun, coz it is fun :thumbsup:

[AstralTraveller]

I think it helps if the kids have some idea what they are 'supposed' to see and what it is. Show some images on a computer of the object your viewing - top class images are great but include some that are closer to what they will see - and explain what it is they will be looking at.

[kinetic]

Thanks heaps guys, I appreciate the replies , pm also.:thumbsup:
I think a class of 30 odd kids plus a parent is too much.
After discussing it with my wife we agree that a better venue might be
the school oval then kids are dropped off to be in the teacher's care
and not an unfamiliar location....and we get to pack the gear up at
our leisure afterwards.
That way if 30 turn up then so be it...
Half might not turn up anyway.
I can picture a few parents/kids staying back to have a chat...I'd enjoy that.

The other thing I dread (but I know I shouldn't) is how people would
perceive or judge your own backyard! :) We have some tidying up to do.
'oh, look honey, Steve has a steel heap...how quaint'
Although it will be dark!:thumbsup:

I like the idea of the teacher handling one scope Alex....that might
work. My boy is a little small to run the 8" F7 Newt.
Also, I've only just mounted the ED80 on the 12" OTA in the dome so
that would be a great live view of the moon with a webcam.
I could have Starry Night running on the laptop and show them Jupiter
setting in the western dusk with the planet orbits turned
on. Kids would get a buzz seeing the solar system plane in front of
them in graphic form....then seeing it for real straight after.

Steve

[kinetic]

Thanks again to the kind people who have offered me advice in pm
and in this post.
It looks like next Fri night (11th Feb) might be the night, either
on the school oval or here (but with less kids!) :)

If on the school oval I can at least show them Jupiter in the lazy
afternoon sky....that would surprise em :)
Moon will be about half full, so a nice terminator and lots of craters.
Then swing over to Crux and Alpha Cent, Jewel Box and Acrux.

Finally on to Orion when it is really dark and show em M42 in the 12"
with a 2" eyepiece :)
Keep it simple and hopefully after 3 or 4 objects they are still awake!

Or something like this...hopefully the weather doesn't let me down.

Steve

[ballaratdragons]

Sounds like a good plan, Steve.
Yes, at the school ground would be better.

And your object list is good. Keep it simple.
Good luck and enjoy yourself.

[that_guy]

I tried to show my friend the Orion Nebula but he just couldnt see it, I said look for the cloudy figure, and he said all i see are stars.. I facepalmed quite hard and gave up and showed him Omega cen :P

[tlgerdes]

Other things to consider for that age group

DST, make it after we go back to standard time, other wise you are waiting around till 9pm before you can see anything.

With your ED80, look at the LMC and SMC.

M45 as a star cluster, point out the strangeness of the "7 sisters" being common across so many cultures.

Point out constellations. Talk about the movement of stars across the sky, through the night and year.

[M110]

If you wait until later in the year later in the year, you could show Scorpius. The only con that sort of looks like it's supposed to. I have found kids like that one.

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: good on ya Steve
Sounds like good fun my son's teacher had asked me if i was interesed in doing something like this for 9 year olds too (i was like um arh mmm) :help: so let me know how you go :lol::lol:

One idea that i did have in mind is to print out and laminate the skymap for February for each child and stand outside with the laser pointer and have a quick scan of the sky before sticking their eye in an eyepiece, that way they get to know their way around the sky themselves and also a little souvenier to take home and be able to show off to their other family members :D

[mithrandir]

Crux does too, and is circumpolar for all locations south of Sydney.

The teacher who organised an astronomy night where SWMBO teaches left and we can't persuade another one to take it on. We had about 15 scopes and numerous binos that night. Only one scope belongs to the school, and a couple to staff families (eg mine), so that's a few parents with an astronomy bent.

Andrew

[kinetic]

yes, thanks guys,
I agree about Scorpio...I wanted to show them that.
Pleiades might be gone by the time DST ends Trev? :shrug:
not sure, I will check. I agree with the DST sentiment too but
I would rather just get this out of the way before the weather
becomes too variable after summer. And I have promised this teacher
this night for a few years now :)

But it is looking more like this Fri nite.

weather is cloudy with rain for Fri so far....
Might re-assess that about Wed,
Saturday might be the alternative nite.
Daughter's teacher will decide on numbers...his call.

Have 3 scopes....

If at home: 12" on GEM in dome with visual and eyepieces a few kids at a time...
some might be allowed to drive the Bartels GOTO.
Can only fit 2 kids and 1 adult in dome at a time.
ED80 piggybacked on 12" with webcam live on lappy.
Live views of moon and kids can drive to other craters.
Son's 8" F7 Newt on dob mount in yard. He can supervise this along with
daughter's teacher and a few of my old .965" eyepieces.....
views of Jup in afternoon sunset, double stars and Omega Cent etc.

On school oval...everything except the 12"
ED80 would be on my smaller homemade GEM (scooter)
That would give the kids a buzz too...a GEM made out of a scooter :)
Laptops run from battery, one running Stellarium and the other with the
live view of the webcam on moon etc.

Haven't discussed the catering for the crowd with the teacher....
3 or so objects over an hour or 2 at most..We could tell the teacher to have
them have an early tea before hand, bring a drink, warm clothes/ beanie
and binocs would be welcome....something like that in a note.

cheers,

Steve

[mental4astro]

:cool: :nerd: :2thumbs: :party:

Mission complete, Steve.

By the way, here in Sydney, there are no trees left to require a burn off, they all got in the way of the Harbour views, :rolleyes: .

[GeoffW1]

Extra well done, Steve, plaudits to you.

Cheers