Saturday, July 28, 2012

Lakeshore Library Star Party


Lakeshore Library System’s ‘Dream Big: READ’ Star Party
Saturday, July 28th, 2012


Approximately 200 members of the Lakeshore Library System participated in the Dream Big READ program and were rewarded by coming to Yerkes Observatory for a private star party! There were several different telescopes set up with knowledgeable people eager to explain what was up in the sky and answer any questions.  In addition to the many telescopes, activities were set up all over Yerkes for families to take part in.

It was a beautiful, clear night for stargazing!  Among the telescopes on the south lawn were a few Dobsonians, an i-Optron, a 12” Meade LX200, a Celestron, a Questar, ‘Sirius B’ which is Yerkes 8” telescope in the white dome, and several more. Some of the celestial objects observed that night were Saturn, the Moon, double stars and nebulae.

Activities:

Family Sun Craft- Family members worked together to trace out their hands on construction paper and attach them to a paper plate to create a cute sun! They decorated it, looped on a string, and brought it with them to hang up at home.

Crater Demo- One of our high school students, Raki, demonstrated how craters form and disappear on planets.  He had kids use rocks to create craters in a sand pile.  Then he explained how a planet with an atmosphere has weather (rain, wind, etc.) to slowly wear down craters.  He demonstrated this with a watering can and a fan.

Story Reading- Kids of all ages gathered around Rhonda in the Yerkes library to hear her read exciting stories about space.

Skynet- We had several computers set up in the Morgan room for everyone to explore Skynet. Skynet is a network of telescopes that can be controlled remotely.  Families were able to ask a telescope in Chile to take a picture of the celestial object of their choice and send it directly to their email!

Tour- Richard Dreisser gave 3 of his very entertaining and informative tours of the history of the building and the famous 40” telescope.

24” Tour- Teenagers ages 12 and up and their parent were able to go up the spiral staircase in the north tower and look through the 24” telescope.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

School Field Trip - 8th Grade

May 8th, 2012 - School Field Trip
Among the many things offered at Yerkes is the School Outreach Program. Schools are invited to bring their students to Yerkes to learn about astronomy through different line ups of exciting activities.
Recently a school group came to Yerkes and we did some exciting activities with them. The first thing the students did when they got here was set up cameras in the south lawn for star trails.
Star Trails: A time-lapse photograph showing the movement of the stars in the night sky.
Example of a Star Trail at Yerkes
Students were also given a grand tour of the observatory. During this tour they were taken to our 40 inch refracting telescope. At this telescope they took pictures and reviewed concepts about the night sky and the difference between refracting and reflecting telescopes.
Students visited the 40inch
Refracting Telescopes: Uses lenses to magnify an image. Often skews the colors of an image.
Reflecting Telescopes: Uses mirrors to magnify an image. Does not skew the colors of an image.

Student looking at 40 in
Student looking at 40 in



After looking at the 40inch telescope the students went to one of the smaller telescopes on our property. They used the 24 inch reflecting telescope to do some observing of their own.

With the 24 inch telescope the students each got a chance to operate the telescopes controls. Whether they moved the scope or raised the floor, each student had a chance to use the control paddle. Students observed with the telescope were Saturn, Mars and a Globular Cluster.
View of Saturn through a telescope
On the tour the students were shown the HAWC project. This is the big project happening at Yerkes right now. Yerkes is making a large Infra-red camera for the NASA Sofia airplane. 
HAWC Infra-Red Telescope
Students then went to the library and used the computer to request images though SkyNet. SkyNet is operated through the PROMPT telescope in Chile. With SkyNet you can request a picture taken at the observatory there!
Image of the Eagle Nebula taken by PROMPT
After all of this the students took some pictures with the Education Outreach Coordinator, Vivian Hoette and went home with some new astronomy experience under their belts.

Students and guide Vivian pose by the 40in
Students and guide Vivian pose in the Library