Star Party Surprise

[Skylook123]

Six to eight times a month I set up, along with other club members, at local schools requesting our support for a night activity. Sometimes the astronomy is the sole purpose of the night, other times the astronomy is an integrated part of a larger event. Last night was the latter type; five of us were setting up for a star party at Robbins Elementary School, a whole school Science Night with parents cooking outdoors and many activities in and around the school for the students and parents.

I've done events at this school in the past; we usually set up in the middle of big athletic field behind the school, but this time they wanted us to set up way off to the side. OK, whatever. After we set up on the side, here's what we saw:

The next door neighbor of the school's head science teacher heard about the event, and offered to set up his hot air balloon as a static night balloon glow! Of course, my batteries died in the camera and I couldn't get pictures of the glow, but it was a nice addition. Except for the burner glow. Kind of messes up night vision. But we stood so we blocked the eyepieces, and it all worked great. What a fantastic addition to a school science night! The balloon was fully inflated for an hour and a half after sunset, and the glow from the burners and the internally illuminated, huge envelope of the balloon in the night sky was quite spectacular. Although hot air balloons are fairly common in these parts, still, the students had never seen one up close, and it was a huge hit. But so were we, showing Jupiter, Albireo, The Ring, The Owl Cluster, and other eye candy.