The Charlie Elliott Chapter was invited for a second year to participate in the 2006 Hightower Trail Elementary "Space Camp".  Many thanks to Clevis Jones for coordinating the event for the chapter, thanks also to the chapter members who brought their scopes and introduced the night sky to the students of Hightower Elementary. 

A special thanks to Jonathan Wood who, with the help of several Hightower students, actually took a high power photo of the planet Saturn that evening.  Please click here to take a look at what Hightower students can do.

Here are some images from the event and an account of the evening by Clevis Jones:

2006-03-24 - Hightower Trail Elementary Space Camp

Charlie Elliott Chapter Volunteers:

Lisa Nelson

Larry and Angus Owens

Daphne and Ken Ross

Jonathan Wood

Clevis Jones

Thank you to the volunteers of the Charlie Elliott Chapter (CEC) of the Atlanta Astronomy Club (AAC) for helping with the astronomy aspect of the 2^nd annual Hightower Trail Elementary Space Camp held at the school’s campus in Conyers, GA. 

From the CEC volunteers to the 4^th grade teachers, school volunteers and parents - for providing dinner for us and for making it so easy for us to share the night sky with all of you and your 4^th grade students, Thank You - We had a GREAT time.

Friday, March 24, 2006 toyed with us in that the cloud cover was about 60% and not looking like there would be much improvement.  Being the intrepid and dedicated volunteers we are, Lisa Nelson, Larry and Angus Owens, Daphne and Ken Ross, Jonathan Wood, and Clevis Jones ventured forth for a night of viewing the sky with about One Hundred 4^th grade students, teachers, school volunteers, and parents.

Jonathan arrived first with Clevis soon there after.  The sky was not happy and obscured itself with a blanket of 80% cloud cover.  Not to fear though, for next to arrive were the guys in white hats, heroes of the night, Larry and Angus Owens.  The clouds dared not stay and immediately started dissipating down to about 5% coverage.  But alas, the best laid plans … Lisa, Daphne, and Ken forgot to do their clear-sky dance before coming, and the clouds slowly moved back in to about 30% coverage by 7:15 p.m. when the first group of students came out to view through the telescopes we volunteers had setup: everything from a 4.5 inch refractor to a 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain.

Clevis would meet each group as it came out and introduce them to the north polar star Polaris, The Big Dipper (via a cowboy), and Orion The Hunter.  Then the students would break-off into their assigned mini-groups and each mini-group would, in turn, visit each telescope.  Within 45 minutes, the sky managed to disappear behind a complete cover of clouds –  bummer - the second group of students did not get to look through the telescopes.

Having had a premonition, Jon Wood had thought to make a PowerPoint presentation with beautiful images of the objects in the night sky.  While the rest of us entertained this second group of students with stories of the speed of light and Saturn floating in the bathtub, Jon wowed them with his computer notebook presentation.

Seeing that the volunteers were not going to give up the good fight, Mother Nature relented and completely cleared the skies into a pristine night for the rest of the groups of students.  Through the various telescopes, the 4^th graders saw Saturn, the Orion Nebula (including the Trapezium), the Globular Cluster M3, Mars, and the Beehive cluster M44.  Fortunately, the 4^th grade teachers decided to bring group number two out to view again, and this time the sky was clear for them.

I looked around and saw the Owens’ 14 inch S-C surrounded like a campfire at a Cub Scout campout.  On the other end of the line, students were getting a view of Saturn through Daphne and Ken’s telescope, and then turning around to look through Lisa’s telescope which had the nearby Beehive open cluster displayed.

In the meantime, Jon was showing a view of Saturn from his 6-inch refractor on his notebook computer screen via a WebCam.  He had set up his telescope WebCam and notebook on the basketball asphalt court and on the notebook screen was showing the students that if they jumped up and down on the asphalt, they could cause his telescope to wiggle.  In spite of John’s assuring them otherwise, some of the students were convinced they had been able to wiggle Saturn by jumping up and down.

Out of this second group, one small young man stepped up on the stool to view through my telescope at the Orion Nebula.  I explained about the young stars of the Trapezium, the nebulosity, etc. and never could get him to acknowledge that he was seeing what I was talking about.  But, I kept on talking because, though absolutely silent, he kept looking.  After a couple of minutes, he stepped off the stool, stood back, tucked his cold hands into his pant’s pockets, looked at up at Orion’s sword and said to Orion, “That has got to be the coolest thing I have ever seen !”.   Then as he started to go, he turned and said to me, “Thank you.”

And so went the 2^nd annual Hightower Trail Elementary Space Camp – astronomy portion.  Thank you  - it was our pleasure.

--Clevis Jones

Last Updated Tuesday, April 17, 2007