This year the students of Bay Elementary School’s SPICE program did not have to wait around for the Sun to make an appearance. Once the NWFAA solar presentation was complete the 35 or so students made their way out to a clear sky to view our nearest star, the Sun.
Frank Atchison, Dean Covey, Tom Haugh, and Dennis & Marietta Hausch were able to support the daytime event this year.
The children got to look at the Sun through Dennis’s white light filtered Maksutov and Dean’s H-alpha refractor. Unfortunately, the Sun, still heading toward minimum in its 11-year cycle, did not present any visible sunspots or prominences. Since the Sun was featureless in white light, Dennis shifted his scope’s view over to Venus but the planet was below the local treeline, so it was back to a blank Sun. Tom set up his astronomical spectroscope providing yet another way to look at the Sun.
We would like to thank the Bay Elementary School SPICE coordinators for the invite to share our passion for astronomy and look forward to our next visit.