magic612
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/30/08
Loc: S. of Chicago's light dome
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Re: Halloween
[Re: MikeBOKC]
#4891832 - 11/01/11 11:50 AM
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Sounds like some of you had some nice outreach opportunities. 
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blb
Post Laureate
Reged: 11/25/05
Loc: Piedmont NC
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Re: Halloween
[Re: MikeBOKC]
#4891918 - 11/01/11 12:41 PM
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I thought about setting up a scope last night but it was mostly cloudy at sunset. Boy am I glad the weather wasn't good when it started. We had over 200 children with adults come by. About half the childern were already hyper, I think they had started eating the candy already. I would hate to be a fourth grade teacher today after last night's sugar fix. I do not think my scope would have survived.
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Steve Fisher
Reged: 08/12/06
Loc: Utah
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Re: Halloween
[Re: blb]
#4891961 - 11/01/11 01:10 PM
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This year I decided to set up my 6' D&G and give the neighbors haunted front yard some competition.
The day started with some White light solar observing, followed by late afternoon lunar observing for the real small ones and then after dark the real fun began.
Dozens and dozens of kids and their grown ups all got a peak at a wonderful moon. All reported having a "great time".
You can check out my video if you like.
Halloween 2011 front yard outreach
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blb
Post Laureate
Reged: 11/25/05
Loc: Piedmont NC
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Steve Fisher]
#4891987 - 11/01/11 01:20 PM
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That's cool it looks like you had a good time.
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Steve Fisher]
#4892217 - 11/01/11 03:27 PM
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Quote:
This year I decided to set up my 6' D&G and give the neighbors haunted front yard some competition.
The day started with some White light solar observing, followed by late afternoon lunar observing for the real small ones and then after dark the real fun began.
Dozens and dozens of kids and their grown ups all got a peak at a wonderful moon. All reported having a "great time".
You can check out my video if you like.
Halloween 2011 front yard outreach
As the kids were saying last night, "Awesome!" 
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Steve Fisher
Reged: 08/12/06
Loc: Utah
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Re: Halloween
[Re: desertstars]
#4892238 - 11/01/11 03:34 PM
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Thanks! It was "Awesome"! The best part for me was a group of about 8 kids with their parents. As they were leaving one young boy probably about 6 or 7 held back and as he was leaving he stuck out his hand to shake mine.
There is hope!
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Jason B
My wife says I am Obsessed...
Reged: 06/21/04
Loc: Mid-Michigan
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Steve Fisher]
#4892511 - 11/01/11 06:21 PM
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Great job to all of you that set up scopes last night! Thanks for sharing your stories!
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KDizzle
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/12/08
Loc: Woodinville, WA
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Jason B]
#4892847 - 11/01/11 09:52 PM
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I left a garage door open with lights in the garage for a bit of extra low-light-level illumination. Also places a lot of carpet/mats over cables on the ground.
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geminijk
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/03/08
Loc: TN
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Re: Halloween
[Re: KDizzle]
#4894258 - 11/02/11 05:11 PM Attachment (15 downloads)
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I decided to bring out the big gun Apertura AD12 (Decided to buy it!) and show the Moon and Jupiter. Thinking I would get trickles of kids, it was more like waves of large groups. The Moon was getting plenty of "Oh Wow!", Jupiter was really too low for many to really get a good view. I did show a few folks NGC 457, as I like to call ET Cluster, but the big winner was old faithful Moon.
John
Edited by geminijk (11/02/11 05:19 PM)
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Skylook123
Postmaster
Reged: 04/30/05
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: geminijk]
#4894381 - 11/02/11 06:18 PM
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We got two to four times the visitors that other cul-de-sacs did around our development, just with word of mouth about a telescope. Six or seven years ago we would get 10-20 at most; last year was over 100, this year over 200. After nine years, people know where the fun stop is.
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The Planetman
sage
Reged: 01/27/06
Loc: Western KY
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Skylook123]
#4894509 - 11/02/11 07:35 PM
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With the Mayor's House being a popular stop in town - that would be me - I took advantage of the clear evening and sat up the 12.5. The kids really had a blast! Even a few parents got excited when they saw the scope sitting in the drive.
The neighbors estimated about 300 kids came through the hood.
I absolutely love watching and listening as they look through the telescope for the first time.
Oh, Luna and Jupiter were the main targets for the night.
Edited by The Planetman (11/02/11 10:18 PM)
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: The Planetman]
#4894655 - 11/02/11 08:57 PM
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It certainly is encouraging to see that so many of us were out there, Monday night!
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David Pavlich
Transmographied
Reged: 05/18/05
Loc: Mandeville, LA USA
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Re: Halloween
[Re: desertstars]
#4894668 - 11/02/11 09:07 PM
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Quote:
It certainly is encouraging to see that so many of us were out there, Monday night!
I was just going to say the same thing! A great way for us to do some outreach.
David
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StarStuff1
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/01/07
Loc: South of the Mason-Dixon Line
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Re: Halloween
[Re: David Pavlich]
#4894800 - 11/02/11 10:18 PM
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I set up an AT66 on a driven mount aimed at the Moon with a low power eyepiece that gave about 14x. The kids would have to look thru eyepiece before receiving treats. No one complained and there were a lot of "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" and sometimes no sounds at all. When I told the kids they could get almost as good an image of the Moon with binoculars several got real excited and said their dad/mom/ brother/etc had binoculars at home.
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Skylook123
Postmaster
Reged: 04/30/05
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: StarStuff1]
#4895010 - 11/03/11 12:29 AM
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We had one young man, probably about 7 or 8, who didn't seem enthusiastic about looking at Jupter at 125X when his mother led him up to the scope. After what seemed like an eternity, his mother said "Well, can you see anything?" He kept his eye glued to the view, and slowly nodded. His mom said "Come on, we have to go." He replied, in a whisper, "I can't stop looking!" Kaching, got another one.
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Raginar
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/19/10
Loc: Rapid CIty, SD
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Skylook123]
#4899573 - 11/05/11 09:18 PM
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I probably had over 200 kids stop by and look through the scope too. I setup my AT8IN/CGEM in my driveway. Had it aligned and ready to slew but the non-stop crowd resulted in it being firmly planted on Jupiter the whole night. Clouds were serendipitious and didn't come rolling in until after the last kiddos had come by. This was my second year doing it and I got multiple comments about being the "telescope man" and how much they enjoyed it last year as well.
I didn't think about trying different objects besides a planet... I think maybe the double cluster or some other DSO that's plainly visible in an eyepiece would be a good idea. Not too many kids can say they've seen that!
Best comment of the night (heard multiple times),"Look at how big the moon is!" and I had to correct them,"That's not the moon, the moon is over ... there (pointing south)".
It was a great time. And like many of you said, it gives kids the opportunity to see things they don't normally interact with. I would've hung out at *my* house all Halloween if I'd met someone who did this as a kid.
Chris
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Skylook123
Postmaster
Reged: 04/30/05
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Raginar]
#4899591 - 11/05/11 09:41 PM
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Nice one, Chris. We lived in Rapid City for a year in 1969-1970; our oldest son was born in the Ellsworth AFB hospital.
After about 15 years of doing the crowd thing in a variety of venues, it's interesting that we astronomers often agonize over the impact of a moon on the event, or getting a rich mix of things to show, when, really, all it takes is one object. Although we've seen it a thousand times, it's brand new to each visitor. And while Jupiter, or the Moon, are slam dunk targets for the entire night when the visitor load is a constant turnover like Halloween, sometimes when the audience is more captive then a couple of objects are good to have in mind. Last month at the Catalina State Park public event we had a bit over 200 people and 11 telescopes, so for about 30 minutes I went to the dobsonian driver's best friend; Polaris! Lots of lessons there, from color and intensity, to the commonality of multiple star systems, to Polaris A being three stars needed spectroscopic study to separate. Who'd have thought that such a simple target would be so interesting.
Jupiter and the Moon sure can make life easy for solo setup; who needs an alignment? And each visitor is thrilled with it.
You're building a fan club, Chris, and word of mouth will start getting scary next year; we've doubled our attendance each of the last three Halloweens. Adjacent cul-de-sacs were doing about 70 visitors for the night; we were over 200. I'm tellin' ya, next year you'll be stunned at the increase. The moon will be two nights past full, so there you go, that or NGC457 (OWL, ET, or Johnny Five Cluster), and you'll be set.
Nice going!
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David Pavlich
Transmographied
Reged: 05/18/05
Loc: Mandeville, LA USA
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Re: Halloween
[Re: Raginar]
#4899720 - 11/05/11 11:18 PM
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That's a heckuva' night, Chris! I'll bet you were just about worn out!
David
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Re: Halloween
[Re: David Pavlich]
#4903523 - 11/07/11 09:37 PM
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This has been very encouraging. I can't remember the last time I was this gratified by a thread I started!
What do you say? Same time next year? 
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David Pavlich
Transmographied
Reged: 05/18/05
Loc: Mandeville, LA USA
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Re: Halloween
[Re: desertstars]
#4903621 - 11/07/11 10:49 PM
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Ayup! Unless the clouds are in, I'll be set up on the driveway!
David
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