Now that school is back in session Project Astro volunteers throughout the land are busily sharing astronomy with their school's teacher and student universe. Project Astro is my favorite volunteer activity and I'd like to share a recent observing night with all of you.

This past Tuesday , October 13th was the night for one of these Project Astro star parties - at Sir Francis Drake High School in Marin County. On hand were Steve Overholt with his 17.5 inch two pole reflector, "the Owl" and two new members of our West Marin Astronomy Club (bringing the membership to 4), one with an Meade ETX, and one with a Celestron C-8. College of Marin Astronomy teacher Tinka Ross was there with her 12 inch LX 200 and some big binos. SFAA president Al Stern was there with his equatorial mounted 8 inch reflector, and yours truly with 6 inch Red Dwarf and 12.5 inch Strider, my mid sized reflectors, which rounded out the telescope lineup. 7 science classes of 30 or so students each signed up in the student center for the astronomy night. That makes, uh...210 sets of raging teenage homones let loose in the football field in the dark. I discovered that these high school students have a hard time concentrating on astronomy. They seem to be more interested in terrestrial observations, anatomy and biology, and seemed most anxious to conduct some hands-on research. Unlike my own interests when I was their age, if I remember correctly. I attended a rival Marin County High school, and my football field night-time activities centered around rallying the Trojans on to victory as their mascot.

We pointed our gathered telescopes toward the planet Jupiter and waited for dusk to darken the sky and for the school electrician to turn out the outside lights and adjust the sprinkler timing so we didn't get a surprise shower later in the evening. This accomplished, the students began arriving and signing the guest books.

Whenever I bring my scopes to school events one student usually stands out from the rest and affirms why I love Project Astro. On this night a freshman named Kate was the standout. Long lines of students with notebooks surrounded the telescopes. They made notes, asked questions and sketched. They hovered around the reference table to study Burnham's Celestial Handbooks, open to the objects under observation. We all targeted different objects to give the students a complete galactic tour - everything under the universe, so to speak. The Andromeda galaxy, even though unimpressive in city lights is an excellent object to explain and so we did. Jupiter and Saturn were covered by two other scopes including Al's reflector. He was on Saturn all night long! Tinka had the Dumbbell Nebula, or the Hercules cluster at high power in her LX 200. Steve concentrated on the Ring Nebula, and other interesting objects he likes to explain including many double stars and distant clusters. I covered double stars in Cassiopeia and Lyra and Cygnus with my little 6 inch Red Dwarf. Strider started the evening pointing low to the west and showed the dark nebula B-86, Barnard's Inkspot. I have nearly beaten that object to death, especially in my observing writeups. Luckily it is sinking fast. But not quite fast enough for one more show. While wallowing low in the murky galactic center near Sagittarius, I noticed a tall fresh faced student at the 20 X 80 mounted binos set up right next to me.

"Jane, can you tell me what this smudge is?, she asked". The binos were not sturdily mounted and as this student towered over me (she was at LEAST 5 feet 5 inches tall!) every time I tried to look in the binos I lost her "smudge". She tried a few times. I tried a few times. I honestly could not see a thing where she was pointing the binos. Tenacious and inquisitive, she decided to find it for herself in the 6 inch red dwarf. She kneeled on the wet grass, and aimed the telrad toward Sagittarius. After a few eyeball guesses, and then by aiming the telrad and scanning her targeted area she found her smudge. She called me over for a look. And there in the eyepiece was M-22, one of the largest and brightest of the globular clusters, exceeded only by Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae. M-13 is fourth brightest, by the way. It is one of the nearest globulars, at 27,000 light years away. Kate studied the Burnham Celestial Handbook, and decided on which facts she should be prepared to share with the students lined up to view. She developed her description of the object and took great pride in describing it to her fellow students. It was one of those special moments when a student at the eyepiece becomes one with the telescope and the sky. Kate was riveted to her cluster. Nothing could move her. She checked frequently to make sure the object was still in the eyepiece, gently coaxing it back in when necessary. She scolded the clueless teens who absent-mindedly stepped in front of the scope, blocking the view of Kate's Cluster for those with interest and patience.

I offered to show her some other objects, but she would have nothing to do with them. M-22 was her personal conquest for the evening and she was happy to watch only that brilliant cluster. A quick view of M-13 didn't move her at all. As M-22 dipped lower and dimmed in the haze and murk, she watched in awe, often insisting in showing me subtle changes in her cluster's visibility. Kate stayed with the scope and her cluster till Sagittarius tilted into the Marin County hills for the night an hour or so later. Then she said farewell and walked away. I think she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. I know the feeling and it was that thrill of discovery mixed with the inevitable sorrowful parting that I observed as I watched Kate throughout the night. M-22 will always remind me of Kate and the first light view of a bright cluster she received at the Sir Francis Drake High School Star party last Tuesday night.