Family Astronomy Night at T...

Had a lot of fun at Family Astronomy Night yesterday at the Thelma Parker Library in Waimea. Members and staff from CFHT Observatory, Keck Observatory and the West Hawai'i Astronomy Club were on hand to create an astronomy experience for the visitors to the library tonight. There were presentations, star talks in a portable planetarium and telescopes setup just outside the front door for viewing the Moon and planets.

Both Keck and CFHT were well represented, including several astronomers, plenty of expertise to answer the many questions. It was not a big crowd, but a steady flow of visitors to the library enjoying the special program. A good evening, lots of smiling faces, exactly what public outreach is meant to be... getting astronomy out of the observatory and into the community, showing the kids that science is really within reach.

A portable planetarium borrowed from Gemini Observatory allowed Keck astronomer Jim Lyke to give star shows throughout the evening. The image the planetarium created may not be as pretty as the real thing, but has the advantage of simulating the sky for any time. In a few minutes guests could watch the sky wheel overhead as if a whole night had passed, stars rising and setting.

A planetarium is an incredibly useful tool in educating people about the sky. Often it is not possible for everyone to come to a full planetarium like 'Imiloa in Hilo. With the portable planetarium is it possible to setup in most schools and libraries on the island, bringing the planetarium to the viewers. Here the operator can show the sky at any time of day, or any season, watching the stars rise and set clearly shows the patterns of the sky in a very visual way.

The planetarium itself was an interesting setup, an inflatable dome with an entrance reminiscent of an elephant's trunk. It seemed strange getting down and crawling through the entrance, a childish act that waked a childish curiosity. A six foot man on the same level as the many kids crawling in with me, we all saw the same projected sky and enjoyed learning together.

The projector is a simple pinhole projection affair mounted in a rotating drum. The star images were a little fuzzy, and brightnesses were simulated with larger openings. But overall it provided a reasonable view of the sky complete with a soft glow of the Milky Way that was fairly accurate. Planets could be preset by means of small assemblies plugged into a set of openings on the side of the drum and adjusted for position. In this way the current display of Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky looked reasonably close to what the visitors would see stepping out the front door of the library to the telescopes.

Outside the real sky was dominated by a bright Moon, less than two days short of Full Moon. With the moonlight and some haze there were far more stars visible inside the planetarium. Viewing the dimmer star clusters and nebulae with the telescopes would have been pointless, but with the crowd of young viewers the Moon and Jupiter made the best targets.

The Moon was a little over a day before full, very bright in the telescope. Lunar craters and mountains are something even a young viewer seems to implicitly understand. Even very young children seem to be able to position their eye properly for viewing the Moon, even if they have little experience with optical equipment. I could see that Jupiter was not quite as interesting to our youngest guests, but good for the older kids and adults. All four moons were visible, spread out into a neat line with two on one side and two on the other side of the planet. As Jupiter sank lower the image degraded, getting a little fuzzy with atmospheric seeing. But that is just a chance to talk about the effects of our atmosphere and adaptive optics.

A fun night, not a huge crowd, but a steady flow of families. Time to ask and answer a lot of questions, a good event of the sort we need to put together more often.