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