Edwins Elementary School is located across the street from Fort Walton Beach High School. With football season here and the associated lights necessary for games, practices and security, a night time sky view was out of the question for the students. So, we chose a star that could not be overwhelmed by stadium lights: the Sun.
Tom Haugh gave a classroom presentation about the sun to each group of students prior to the class adjourning to the athletic track to view our nearest star. Club members Bob Schritter, Frank Atchison, Dean Covey, Dennis Hausch and Chuck Lynch manned the telescopes setup outside. White light, spectroscopic and Hydrogen Alpha views were all available to the students.
There were a couple of small sunspot groups visible as well as several prominences on the solar limb. The clouds stayed away for all but a couple of minutes, unfortunately, several students were not able to take advantage of the H-alpha telescope during their turn.
We would like to thank the staff and students of Edwins Elementary School for their invitation and warm welcome. We are also very grateful to the teachers who provided us with an excellent lunch during the noon time break.
2 Responses to “Edwins Elementary School Astronomy Day (04 Oct 2013)”
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When I was a 5th and 6th grade student at Edwins Elementary (then Westwood Elementary) back in 1955-56, presentations by visiting scientists about cryogenics and weather balloons made a major impact on my decision to pursue a career as a science writer and researcher. It’s good to see that your organization is continuing the sharing of science with students at this and other schools.
Mr. Mims,
Thank you. We never know in advance what impact our work with the local schools will have. If we are able to inspire just one student to become a future ‘citizen scientist’ such as yourself, we would be extremely gratified.
Thank you again for the encouraging comments.