We had a great time tonight at the Berry Elementary School Science Night event in North Houston. Teresa Stokes, Steve Pinney, Ian Binmore, Ian’s son Gordon, and I shared the night sky with a few hundred students and parents at the event. I was able to spend some time indoors before the sun set to talk about the planets (with a heavy focus on Jupiter) and I had lots of fun, interesting questions from the kids.
Once the sun went down, we were able to point our telescopes towards a bevy of celestial targets, including Jupiter, Venus, M42, and Castor for an example of a double star. There were certainly lots of “oohs” and “aahs” from the children and parents alike. We also gave a tour of Orion, Gemini, Canis Major, and Taurus. The Pleiades were suspended nicely overhead and Venus and Mars in close proximity to one another made for a wonderful naked eye sight, as well. We wrapped up the viewing at approximately 7:30pm and were packed up and gone by 8pm.
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to participate in these outreach events, they’re a great time. You don’t have to be an expert – all you have to do is be able to point a telescope at a bright object. Please consider joining us at a future event!
Joe