ASNH Meteorites Hard at Work!
By Al Washburn
On Friday, March 6th I brought the ASNH meteorite collection to Deer Run Elementary School, in East Haven, CT to give a presentation to my grandson Aden’s kindergarten class. I also brought my, newly made, “Crater Maker Box”, step ladder, 10 pounds of flour, a container of chocolate milk mix, an old bed sheet and a mechanical sifter! I set up while the class was at lunch, as it was to be a surprise, especially for Aden. Lots of “wows” and wide eyed students returned through the door after their lunch period. I told them I was going to show them special rocks from space! I began with “what was a meteor?” I used my green laser to show a quick streak of light across the ceiling of the darkened classroom mimicking a night time meteor! They thought this was “cool!” Next, I mentioned that some of these meteors can reach the Earth’s surface and make a crater. I demonstrated this with the “crater maker box” where, upon impact, I covered my pants with lunar ejecta (flour). They loved this too! I showed them a map of the Moon and a picture of “Barringer’s Crater” and asked what might have made those craters? Subsequently, I asked if they wanted me to make a new crater and they replied, in unison, Yes! I paused and asked, would they like to do it? A very excited reply occurred! All class members, one at a time, climbed the short step ladder and dropped a rock. “Poof” went the flour and we made great craters and a wonderful mess!
Next we went to the table of meteorites and learned there were three different kinds using handouts and a coloring page to boot!. They were then handed magnets and we found out which meteorites were stone or metal. All of this was followed with a question and answer period. We all had a great time.
This all went very well because on 1/29/2020 I did the same routine at the Tabor School, in Branford, for my granddaughter Zoey’s preschool class!
ASNH Loans Telescope to Milford Public Library
On Saturday January 18, ASNH held a public event at the Milford Public Library to donate a 4.5-inch Orion Starblast telescope to the library that can be loaned to any interested library patrons. The event was attended by about 20 people, both adults and children. ASNH President Greg Barker began by formally turning over the telescope to the library, and then Laurie Averill demonstrated how to set up and use the scope. Jim Mazur gave a Powerpoint presentation showing how to find some of the brighter objects in the winter sky. At the end of the program there was a raffle to select the first few people who could borrow the telescope, and one lucky family took the scope home with them. We hope they had at least a few nights of clear skies to enjoy trying out the telescope.
This is the fourth Starblast telescope that ASNH has loaned to local libraries for use by the public. The other scopes are available at libraries in Branford, Madison, and Durham. As part of this outreach program, ASNH typically holds follow-up events at these libraries to encourage use of the telescopes, and more generally, to stimulate an interest in viewing the night sky.
