Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society

Welcome to the 2010 Community **Star*Party** season. We held our first school **star*party** on the 30th of January, at Edward Harris Middle School in North Elk Grove. Besides myself, Pierre was the only other volunteer that was able to make it that night. I did hear from many of the other regular volunteers, but for various reasons they could not come that night.

Things still worked out ok. Pierre brought two telescopes, an 8inch SCT, and his C11. I had my Meade LX90, 12” SCT setup for the viewing pleasure of the students and other visitors. I estimate about 150 students and guests showed up for the event. The weather was on our side for a change, it rained for almost the whole week leading up to Saturday’s **star*party**, then we had a break for the 30th, and then back to the inclement weather on Sunday, so we need to thank the weather gods for such a wonderful night.

With only three scopes being set up the lines were at times somewhat longer then usual. The people took it in stride and it appears everyone had a great time. Pierre trained his 8” SCT on the edge of the moon and left it tracking all night long. The moon was very bright because 97% of the surface was illuminated that night. A bit of trivia for you, the Full Moon on Friday the 29th, was the brightest Moon for the entire year of 2010, did you miss it???

With his C11, Pierre showed many different targets during the night. Say what you want about GoTo scopes, but they do work well in the city where you can’t see that many stars to help you navigate the sky and find that DSO you’re looking for. A big hit that night was when Pierre trained his C11 on the Andromeda Galaxy; people were wowed with the thought of looking out of our own Milky Way Galaxy and seeing our sister Galaxy that is 2.2 million light years away. To really bring an understanding of how far away Andromeda is, I told them that the light from our Sun takes about roughly six minutes to get to Earth, since it’s about only 93 million miles away, compared to 2,200,000 years for Andromeda’s light to reach us. With the Moon being almost full and Oh So Bright, only the Galactic Core was visible, but no one seemed to mind.

I had my Meade pointed at the Great Nebula in Orion, it was showing up well considering how bright the night was. What really surprised lots of people is when I asked about the four stars that form the small square (ok, it’s close to a square if you squint a bit) in the center of the nebula- they were so taken by the nebula, that’s all they were seeing!

Turns out the **star*party** was also a “First Light” night, too. Some of the guests had brought the telescopes they got for X-mas; want a challenge, try putting together a telescope you have never seen before. Oh, and do it in the dark with a dim red light- what could be more fun?

Let me invite any of you that have never attended a school star party before to give it a try, I can guarantee you a good time. But, I must warn you, it can be additive, and I’m the only **star*party** pusher in town. Here are the dates and places that are on the calendar as of now:

Edward Harris Middle School, January 30th; completed successfully.
Kohler Elementary School, February 11th, CANCELLED
Phoebe Hearst Elementary School, February 18th
Heritage Oak Elementary School, February 23rd
Cub Scouts, Troop #57, March 9th
Robert J. Fite Elementary School, March 18th
Irene B. West Elementary School, April 22nd
Deer Creek, August 14th
Stay tuned, I am sure more dates will be added as the year progresses.

If you would like to VOLUNTEER for one, some, or all of the dates let me know at perryprestonporter@yahoo.com

ppp

Perry Preston Porter
Community Star Party Coordinator

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