400 Million Years Below and 30 Million Light Years Above ______Penn Dixie Site May 16, 2009

I had planned to help out Paul Z. and Rich S. and possibly some other amateur astronomers over at the Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center ( http://www.penndixie.org/index.html ) but the weather was pretty miserable in Hamburg all day and it appeared it was going to be a complete wash for the evening observing session. Fortunately around 8 PM I happened to walk out my back door and looked over Lake Erie to the western horizon and it appeared to be clearing. Our scheduled start time was 8:30PM. I thought I'd take the chance so I hurriedly loaded up my Televue NP101 and headed over to the Penn Dixie site which is only about 5-10 minutes away. The skies continued to clear except for a low lying fog off the lake.

When I arrived I was I was greeted by Gerry Bastedo , the Director of the site, Paul Zimmer and Rich S. They didn't look too confident of having any clear skies but I told them it was right behind me as I drove over here. They had already put in a full day of activities at the site- "5TH ANNUAL DIG WITH THE EXPERTS" ( http://www.penndixie.org/events/2009/may.pdf ) and didn't seem to have much energy left in them. At about 8:45 PM the skies were clear and the we were up and running with my TV101 and Rich's 14" Meade Reflector. Unfortunately due to the earlier weather all the visitors departed except one father with his son and his son's friend.

Well the race was on with the advancing clouds in the distance, but we were able to show them, much to our and their delight, their first glimpse of Saturn through a telescope, Binaries stars: Algieba(gamma leonis), Mizar and Alcor, epsilon Lyrae-"Double Double", Globular Clusters- M3, M13, Asterism- Napolean's Hat in Bootes, and I was actually able to find the Planetary nebula-M97 in Ursa majoris, in spite of the significant light pollution. The OIII filter really helped. Although only 3 visitors for the night we already an unexpected great 1 1/2 hours of observing. We all left by 10PM and the Sky was completely cloudy over. Rich gave the guys a little tour of the night sky with his green laser too.

All in one day I stood upon 400 million years old fossils and 30 million year old photons from the Leo Triplet passed my corneas and danced upon my retinas. There's something kind of cool about that!

Leo Triplet image courtesy of Mike Israel- fellow Buffalo Astronomical Assoc. Member-- Great image Mike!

Astronomy Day May 2, 2009 at the Buffalo Museum of Science

We had a great day for Astronomy Day 2009 at the Buffalo Museum of Science. In fact maybe the weather was too nice in Buffalo as attendance was down for a Saturday at the Museum. In spite of the lower than expected numbers I think that all who attended were treated to a great day replete with all kinds of astronomy related activities. About 300 people came through from 10-4PM. Those that missed the great day may have been sunning themselves after our long winter.

We had about 25-30 BAA members volunteering for the day, 5 or 6 students from Nardin Academy, 6 or 7 students from the West Seneca YES (Youth Engaged in Service) group doing face painting, and about 5-7 young people from the Museum(A big thanks to Betsy Vazquez of the Museum) doing various astronomy crafts. Thank you to the Smith girls for doing your part at the "Create an Exoplanet" and "Tricked Out Star Charts" table. Kudos to all the BAA members in attendance. Thanks for all your help!

On the rooftop were BAA members manning the H-alpha solar scopes and white light filtered telescopes. I hardly made it up there due to my duties in Hamlin Hall but I was informed there were some very nice solar prominences to show the visitors. Alan Friedman and Anu Sharma were in H-alpha mode all afternoon. Scott Smith and Bob Folger got to show lovely pristine white discs all day, but it was nice to compare white light vs H-alpha. Mark Morgis may have had his binos on old Sol too!

Hamlin hall will filled with various astronomy displays and astronomy crafts and projects.
Displays included:
Buffalo Astronomical Associations- hand outs, telescope displays, DVD showing the clubs activities, Astronomy Postcards from club members greeting card company(proceeds to club), Discount on BAA membership, etc..
Our Sun display with all great info from SOHO media department(Thanks Dr. Steele Hill), Our Moon with the community Lunar scape project, Constellations and Our Universe , BAA Astrophotgraphers, and Telescope Displays. All displays were replete with informative astronomy handouts and various astronomy projects.
Astronomy projects included 2 different types of sun dials, spectroscopes, "Tricked out" Star Charts, Make your own Planispheres, Create your own Exoplanet, Re-invent a constellation, as well as astronomy crafts by the museum located in the center of Hamlin Hall.
Of course face painting is always a favorite and I think the kids loved the astronomy themed artwork. Great job "YES" kids!

I may have had the most fun coercing kids to plummet a "meteorite" into our lunar surface model. I think their still finding flour around the museum. I did enjoy the exoplanet project more than I should have at 50 years of age!

We had it all packed up by 5PM. I went home whipped but couldn't resist Astronomy Night out at the Beaver Meadow Observatory. I mustered up enough energy, left my scopes at home and ventured the 35 or so miles to the observatory and enjoyed the evening with fellow members and the public. It was great just answering questions and looking through everyone else's telescope. I did run out of gas and left early and was home by 12:30 am.

Thanks to all the following BAA Volunteers for the Day:

Beth Anzalone
Mike Benz
Marilou Bebak
Larry Carlino
Bob Folger
Alan Friedman
Rich Fusani
Jeff/Janice Gardner
Tom Heyer
Mary Hughes
Mike Israel
Rick Janus
Don Knecht
Carl Milazzo
Mark Morgis
Joe Orzechowski
Rick Pason
Frank Pirrone
Joni Russ
Anu Sharma
Scott Smith/Sarah Smith/Ashley Gerwitz
Steve Smith
Paul Tabor/Leilani Tabor
Ty Woodhouse/Cassie/Lotus/Dalila/Scarlett/Stephanie Carmichael
Wolfgang Buechler
Mike O'Connor

I had to take a picture of the inquisitive very cute young lady pictured last. Her name was Adrianna- just like my daughter's!