Recent ASNH Activities
Summer Astronomy Programs at the Henry Carter Hull Library in Clinton
Throughout the summer, ASNH members participated in a variety of astronomy-related programs for both children and adults.
On Fridays throughout the summer, the Families Helping Families program of Clinton provided a community lunch to anyone who came to the library, and this was followed by an educational activity for children and adults. ASNH members led the activities on three of these Fridays. One featured solar observing through a Personal Solar Telescope (PST), a second involved a scaled planet walk across the library grounds, and in the third, Al Washburn and Laurie Averill displayed the ASNH meteorite collection.
Teen/tween programs explored mixing colored lights using pinhole viewers and creating an image of the Andromeda Galaxy using RGB filtered photographs taken through the NASA Micro-Observatory.
One adult program by Laurie Averill featured a presentation about the long-term impact of scientific findings resulting from the study of the lunar samples collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts. In another adult program, Jim Mazur described techniques of astrophotography for beginning through advanced photographers. All of these events were part of the library’s Universe of Stories summer program.
Public Observing at Hammonasset Beach State Park, August 2
This was the second observing event we have attended at Hammonasset this year. Members of the Thames Amateur Astronomical Society also participated. Even though this event took place on the weekend of Stellafane, we had a total of about 10 scopes or binoculars up and running.
A large crowd of about 150 people came by on this warm summer evening. The skies were partly cloudy, but there were enough openings for everyone to get a good look at Jupiter with its four bright moons and Saturn with two or three of its moons. Our timing was lucky, because Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was right on its meridian just as darkness fell, and it was quite prominent (and definitely reddish in color). The Cassini division in Saturn’s rings was also visible for those who took the time to look carefully. The clouds started to increase later in the evening, but for those who stayed late some of the larger scopes provided good views of the Ring Nebula, Messier 13 in Hercules, and a few other deep-sky objects.
Observing Night with Northford Girl Scouts
On Saturday, October 5, ASNH members brought their scopes to a park in Northford, where a troop of girl scouts (actually Daisy Scouts, about ages 5 to 8) and their parents came to do some observing. The main targets of the evening were the first-quarter Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn. The girls made us the poster below to thank ASNH for coming.
