Saltfleet Secondary School Star Party

[Victor.Abraham]

Hamilton RASC is pleased to announce that we are resuming our Outreach programs, starting with a Star Party on November 29 – all ages welcome!!

We will be at Saltfleet Secondary School, 108 Highland Road West, Stoney Creek from 8pm to 10 pm. If the sky is cloudy, we will reschedule to November 30.

At the Star Party we will be letting members of the public look through our telescopes at Jupiter. Our team will also be able to answer any questions you have about astronomy and the benefits of joining our chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada!

The Saltfleet SS council will also be selling hot chocolate to help them raise funds!

No need to RSVP; just show up and enjoy the beauty of the night sky!

[Ed.Mizzi]

Victor, Sounds exciting. A few questions...and suggestions...

1. It gets dark much earlier than 8 pm. Could we possibly begin by at least 7 pm so we can also view the First Quarter Moon, and Saturn.
2. Will the school shut off outside lights for us?
3. Will people have access to restrooms?

4. Maybe tell visitors to dress as if it is 10 deg C. colder than the forecast predicts
5. How about inviting people to bring binoculars and telescopes that they have never learned to use properly?

Thanks
Ed

[Victor.Abraham]

Thanks for the suggestions Ed.

I’ll talk to the school about starting the session earlier

Indeed, the lights will be shut off from what I’ve been told.

Restrooms will be dependant on whether the CUPE strike is still on a week from now. If it is then there will be no access indoors.

For points 4 & 5 I’ll coordinate with John Devonshire and Debbie to blast a few more posts between now and the event to updat people. Plan was to have a final blast n Thursday or Friday with a final date.

[Ed.Mizzi]

Victor, Sounds good. Gotta love your choice of words in your sentence beginning with "Indeed,..."

Ed

[Jeff.Booth]

Indeed.

[Jeff.Parsons]

I can help out. The forecast is for a clear night Nov 29.

[Victor.Abraham]

Jeff, that would be fantastic. This is being opened up to students, parents, teachers and people in the community so I have no idea what sort of attendance there'll be. Right now we have 5 confirmed members bringing their scopes so if you want to throw your hat in the ring I would be very grateful. I'll send more details later this week. 

[Victor.Abraham]

Doing an event at the end of November was a long shot and due to uncooperative weather, we've decided to postpone the event to a date and time that will be more favourable.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered to spend an evening showing people the skies. We will get out there soon!

[Ed.Mizzi]

Victor, Thank you for all the time and work you put into planning this event. You are a true RASC ambassador.

Ed

[Victor.Abraham]

It really is my pleasure. I get to do something I love doing and make some people smile along the way. What more can one ask for?

So... tiny little secret... In my chat with Kevin yesterday afternoon after we'd decided to postpone,
he was was very disappointed (not at us, but the weather) as was I, so I offered to still show up and see what we get. During the day, today, he made announcements to the school we'd likely cancel but if they look up in the evening and you can see stars he'd open the observatory.

Well it turns out we had about 30 people come by. Mostly students and friends of students. We had the school librarian who also brought 3 people with her. One of the other teachers was entertaining the crowd talking about the schools scope. We had a family come by with three little ones and they all took their turns looking through the observatory scope, while asking lots of questions.

Astrospheric did a great job in predicting a viewing window between 7 and 8 and we took advantage by seeing Jupiter, the Moon, and Saturn. The clouds were still heavy, but it was enough to get people asking when the next event will take place. So mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

I did pack the clubs 8", I'd been working on, but decided not to haul it out. Nor did I pull out the marketing material, opting to save it for next time.

I did my best to direct people to our Facebook page and our website if they wanted to learn more about astronomy. I also plugged Andy's idea of running some telescope clinics early in the new year and that people could reach out to us via the Facebook page and email.

All in all, for a cancelled event, I'd say 30 people is quite good. Imagine what we'd get with a non-cancelled event?

[Ed.Mizzi]

wow! Wow! Wow! We're going to start calling you the Pied Piper of Astro Outreach. That's wonderful news. It's almost as if you "willed" the clouds to disperse for that short time.
But I have a question. I thought their OB scope was not functioning well, or did I misunderstand a previous post?

Once again, kudos to you.
Ed

[Victor.Abraham]

I can't claim to have had any influence on the clouds, but I'll take the win. As for the crowd that showed, I think that was mostly Kevins doing as he's been talking up the event within the school. Again, happy to ride the coattails of that success.   

The obsty at the school works but it has issues. It's alright for visual astronomy, and it does track. Surprisingly, we were able to get it polar aligned on Tuesday. From time-to-time the gearing seems to glitch and make noises, but power cycling the scope seems to fix the issue. I didn't witness it myself, but that is according to Kevin. There's also 'something' with the cabling running from the obsty to the warm room. At some point they may have been cut. It would require a knowledgeable member to help diagnose the issue.

[Ed.Mizzi]

If my memory is correct, I believe it was Roger Hill and one or two other members who were actually part of the installment of that scope. Too bad he lives so far away.
Ed