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Letter from the President
Hello again to everybody.
As we get into the fall months, it appears the Covid-19 is not going away any time soon; in fact, it seems to be getting worse. This has affected outreaches, meetings and almost all group gatherings. I have found some time these last couple of months to do a little outreaching. We did one recently for Trail Life Organization. I also helped our newest member, Aravindh Nagarajan with the club's 8" Dob so that he could take it to Big Bend. My best, though, is explained below.
My neighbor's 10 year old granddaughter saw my 10" Dobsonian scope when they came over and wanted to know what it was. When I told her and asked if she wanted to see through it, she excitedly said yes and asked her grandmother if it was alright. I took it outside, put an eyepiece in it and the Telrad on and told her that she had to do the rest. I told her how to turn the Telrad on and told her to look through it and put the small circle on the bright star I pointed at. She did as told and looked through the eyepiece and said that it was just a big blob. I showed her the focus knob and told her to turn it until it was focused. She immediately cried out, "Is that Jupiter? That is so cool." She wanted to know what else she could see. I told her to use the Telrad and point it at the star to the upper left of Jupiter. When she did that and looked through the eyepiece, she said, "WOW, I've always wanted to see Saturn." She asked why it was moving and I explained about the Earth turning and told her how to keep it centered.
We looked for a little while and I told her how to change the lens for higher power. She said, "Man, it's moving a lot faster." I pointed out Mars and told her to put the 26mm back in. She knew just what to do to get the scope over to Mars. We looked at it for a while and changed eyepieces a couple of times.
She wanted to see Jupiter at higher power, so I let her swing the scope back to it. She noted that she could see the rings around the planet. I explained about the cloud layers.
"What else can we see?" she asked. I pointed out Albireo. She put the scope on it like a pro. When she looked, she said, "Wow, one's yellow and one's blue." I explained to her about double stars. I then asked her to let me point it. I moved the scope to M56 and told her to look. She asked why there was so many stars together and I told her about open and globular clusters.
About then Grandma said they had to go. She told her that she had to show her something first and moved the scope back over to Jupiter. I was so proud. She said her goodbyes and asked if we could take the scope out again the next time she was over. I said sure thing.
I think that I have created a MONSTER!
Bye for now,
Warren Bracewell
President BVACAll new members and visitors need to check us out at Brazosvalleyastronomyclub.org and the Brazos Valley Astronomy Club Facebook page.
That's all for now. I hope to see you at the next meeting.
Clear Skies,
Warren Bracewell
President, Brazos Valley Astronomy Club
Warren Bracewell serves as president of the Brazos Valley Astronomy Club. Warren is an active participant in astronomy related community outreach activities. In the photo above, he set up his telescope on a rainy night under a covered area at Lick Creek Park and demonstrated to enthusiastic participants how a telescope works.