by Bruce Jensen
On Monday, January 28 in the evening, Pioneer Elementary School held its annual Science Fair, a gathering of children and parents around the idea that science is interesting, fun and able to be successfully conducted by people of all ages. The cafeteria was pacekd with hundreds of creative displays of scientific principles by children in grades K - 5, many delightfully thorough and insightful. Volcanoes and seed sprouts, lemons and light bulbs, magnets and planets, and wondrous creations of all kinds gave insights to science through the eyes of children.
Principal Joanne Stanley, Vice Principal Gus Samaniego (sp? I hope!) and Science Specialist Paula Figdor invited the astronomers of TAC back to present the third annual SciFair Star Party and Telescope Show. Six astronomers - Andrew Bell, Bob Czerwinski, Bruce Anderson, Ed Greenberg, Jon Bartelink and yours truly - brought the Solar System and deep sky down to earth for an eager and joyful mob of children and their parents from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. After threatening us with a nubial nightmare all weekend, on Monday morning Meteora had mercy and chased the clouds away, leaving us a sparkling and suprisingly stable atmosphere through which to display some of Nature's grandest wonders.
People were able to see examples the three major varieties of telescopes. Jon B. presented Venus to the swarms in his SCT, while in Ed G's 8" DobNewt people found lovely multiple star systems. Bruce A., with his sweet little boy at hand, allowed people to survey the craters of Luna with his 6" refractor. With 12" SCT and 14.5" handbuilt DobNewt respectively, Bob C. and Andrew B. displayed the great gas giants of our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, both of which revealed ample detail and numerous moons in the steady post-frontal skies. Despite the light pollution in the suburban city, I aimed the 0.457 (meter, that is) truss dob at M42, the Orion Nebula, and with the lights in the basketball courts switched off, it was a pretty good view overall, with filaments aplenty and six stars in the Trapezium. I also had a pair of 10x50 binocs on a Virgo mount, which received ample use (and fingerprints :-) by eager young do-it-yourselfers exploring the moon and beyond. Through it all, we kept up a lively round of chatter about the magnificent objects on display and the wonderful gadgets that made it possible.
We had several handouts, as always, for TAC, the MSNucleus astronomy group in Fremont, websites of interest, and light pollution; I left with far fewer than I had when I arrived, so I gather that many had been taken by people for whom the evening may have been just the first step toward a great hobby.
Despite the fact that this was our third year at this event, and several children have been able to enjoy this show for the third time, there were still many people who were caught offguard by the size and capabilities of the scopes we had there, and even more by the precious beauty of the night sky. The solar system objects never fail to draw gasps and expressions of delight from parents and children; and when they peer into the glass and see stars dancing around one another in a stately do-si-do, or the millenium-old light from a vast star nursery in a distant part of our galaxy, often, something within them responds, some spark of curiosity and romance, something that makes them begin to wonder if there more to life than jobs and bills and traffic jams, something more to the night than glowing unnatural city skies and the pathetic handful of stars that normally greet urban gazers. Adults suddenly begin to think out loud about childhood memories of more splendid celestial domes viewed on camping trips, and children begin to ask about other worlds and universes beyond, perhaps with dreams of one day visiting those distant realms.
I like to think, perhaps, that our little effort on behalf of inquiry, dark nights, and the great rewards of stretching one's mind for the sheer joy of it, has charmed some of the adults into rethinking the value and importance of some of their daily activities, and has galvanized some young minds into the lifelong pursuit of exporation and learning...and perhaps, swell the ranks of amateur astronomers, too.
Great thanks to the people at Pioneer School who invited us there, for we loved presenting the starshow as much as your children loved viewing it. Thank you to my beautiful wife Pamela and son Nicholas for the encouragement and support they show for this hobby I love so much, and to the supporting families of all astronomers who make the periodic sacrifices necessary to allow their roving stargazers to search the darkness. Three cheers for the patient and cheerful astronomers who brought the show to the people. A hopeful thank you to those astronomers who wanted to come but were not able to make it last evening; your interest by itself is sufficient cause for gratitute, and we hope to see you next time. Thanks to TAC for providing an encouraging forum to gather together all the knowledge and interest that is available in our great community. Thanks to Planet Earth for supporting us humans long enough to be able to enjoy the riches around us and above us. Finally, thanks to Whomever or whatever is responsible for making this fabulous old universe to begin with - may it be a source of neverending curiosity and inspiration for children until the end of time.