Lots Of Outreach, No Chance To Write

[Skylook123]

Usually I post a lot of outreach observing reports, but I haven't for quite some time. Not that I haven't been busy - still doing six or more a month, but duties with the club (my term as VP has finally ended!!) and a crushing work schedule with 60 or more hours a week of high pressure integration and testing activities, have left little time for my rambles. That plus two strokes in nine months have caused me to behave myself more reasonably.

But just a word or two about some recent adventures. Back in April a group of us did two full days of solar outreach at the Tucson Festival Of Books in April. NOTE: if you're out under the Arizona Sonoran Desert sun for 10 hours a day, don't get dehydrated. I was fine on Day 1, had plenty of liquids available on Day 2, but so many visitors I just forgot to keep hydrated, thus low blood volume the next day and a stroke in my boss' office. Got lots of sympathy, only lasted a minute, and no damage. Don't do that! Great event, though. We got a picture through a big Lunt up on Kitt Peak National Observatory, turned it into a tattoo, and gave out hundreds to kids at the Book Fair along with showing live video of a very active sun both days, including watching a filament grow across the solar disk.

Then, on May 10, Astronomy Day, we took over a park in north Tucson from 2 PM to 10 PM with about 30 or more astronomers. We ran a lot of solar observing, sessions training people to use their own scopes, offered telescope repair in the afternoon, and did a one hour special session with kids explaining how telescopes work. At sunset around 8 PM I did one of my cultural sky tours for about 80 or so visitors that went extremely well, but I had to keep it at fifteen minutes since we had to be packing up at 9 PM to be out by park closure at 10 PM. I had the moon in my live video setup most of the day (92% illuminated - who picks such a date for Astronomy Day?), but couldn't talk to it after my tour because about thirty folks followed me back to my setup and wanted to talk more Native American, Egyptian, and Mediterranean cultural astronomy. GREAT day and night.

Finally, a Friday night in May was a great experience. A group called Candlelighters does many support activities for children with cancer. This weekend there is a family retreat at a YMCA camp on the back of the Catalina Mountains outside of Tucson, AZ. Two of us were asked to set up telescopes as an additional activity at the camp for the children aged 5-13 and their families and staff. We were scheduled to be there from 8 - 9:30 PM, but their catered food was almost an hour late arriving (can be a tough trip up the dirt roads and trails to the mountain camp) so follow on activities were pushed out, but my partner Don and I had nothing better to do on a Friday night so we said we'd stay as long as people wanted to have their night environmental awareness raised.

WHAT a crowd. BLACK skies, gorgeous constellations, people constantly coming and going, I did Jupiter for quite a while since there were transits, eclipses, and occultations galore and a Great Red Spot smack on the meridian at sunset. The rest of the night I spent on M13, awesome view in my 19" monitor from the Mallincam Junior PRO on my 10" SCT, while Don did the crescent moon, Saturn, and a selection of open clusters. Don left at 11:15, I left around midnight. Wonderful kids, even more wonderful fund raisers and volunteers to bring a little distraction to these kids with cancer. Got to do a ton of cultural talk, and lots of cosmology in simple terms as well. The most touching moment was when the Milky Way was up and I was talking about the Seminole Native American concept of the Great Rift being the space between God's arms, showing us that He loves us and will protect us. One seven year old whispered to me,  "Looking at that, I feel better now, for the first time since I got sick". My gosh, how can you beat that?

The next day  I heard from Don, my partner at the Y-Camp. While I was using a Mallincam Junior Pro and a 19" monitor for the kids and volunteers, Don was using an 8" Mak-Cass with eyeballs at the eyepiece. Here's the note he sent.

"While I was pointed at Saturn, a little girl climbed up the step stool, looked into the EP, and very quietly said, "ohhh, wow". Then continued to look & look, while the line grew & grew. Nobody disturbed her. After maybe 4-5 minutes she stepped down, gave a big sigh, and even more quietly said, "thank you, mister". And some people actually have to ask us why we bother to do this."

So, with the image of Jupiter and M13 on the big monitor, I was able to bring some wonder of the night sky to some kids who were able to forget their troubles, if only for a few minutes, and actually were intrigued with the mysteries we are solving, chuckling at M13 as a retirement home for stars in the core of an old galaxy. But when we use these fantastic magical tools, the most important part we bring is ourselves. Many of us on these forums use our instruments to open minds to the night environment. But really, it's our personal connection with our public that means so much. So I'd say, get out there if you can; you really never know what one life you'll touch.

 

[andrew63]

Must be very rewarding Jim to bring a little joy to the kids and families in what must be stressful lives.   The people of Tucson are lucky to have such a great opportunity to be introduced to the wonders of the night sky.

andrew

[Paul M]

Hi Jim, I can see that your outreach work is its own reward but I'm humbled by your dedication.

It just seems you need to look out for yourself a bit more!!

[Skylook123]

Hi Jim, I can see that your outreach work is its own reward but I'm humbled by your dedication.

It just seems you need to look out for yourself a bit more!!

Yes, Paul, not as young as I once was.  I wasn't around with the dinosaurs, but I was around before their footprints hardened in the mud.

I've coached a lot of youth sports over 45 years, and ALWAYS stressed hydration.  And even in my welcome notes to Grand Canyon Star Party volunteers I stress the mountain desert, and if one finds themselves spitting cotton balls, it's too late.  The face in the mirror didn't seem to get the word.

[cotterless45]

it's very satisfying to give your time to outreach events, well done !

Last one that we did , we had folk who had never looked through a scope before. It was amazing to see their reactions to viewing the Moon and planets for starters,

Nick.

[Skylook123]

Yes, Nick, the planets are great assistants to opening the sky to people.  We sometimes have a game we play with first time observers of Saturn; how many can we get to spring leaks from their eyes at their first view.  And how many look around front to see the picture we have in front of the scope, or painted on the mirror.

[Skylook123]

Must be very rewarding Jim to bring a little joy to the kids and families in what must be stressful lives.   The people of Tucson are lucky to have such a great opportunity to be introduced to the wonders of the night sky.

andrew

Thank You, Andrew.  It is always uplifting to see the reactions of people to looking up and seeing the sky in new ways.  Whatever they can take away is theirs forever.