Astronomy Night, June 2006

On June 21st, I hosted the first-ever summer-time Astronomy Night at Rolling Hills Country Day School (RHCDS). At the previous gathering in May, a number of parents had suggested the summer hiatus was no reason not to get interested school families together to enjoy the night sky. I certainly wasn't going to argue. Since Jupiter is the dominant night-sky object right now, I decided to focus attention there. The monthly almanac in Sky & Telescope magazine indicated that the Jovian moon Io would transit Jupiter on the evening of 6/21, its shadow beginning a match across the giant planet at approximately 9:45PM PDT. This is a fascinating sight, even for regular Jupiter observers, so I decided to time our activities around it.

Since the transit began fairly late, I had plenty of time for a slide presentation in the school auditorium. To set the stage, I created a slideshow on the Jovian moons and their motion, explaining why on occasion shadows can be seen on the face of Jupiter. However, while I was preparing this, I happened upon the latest photos from the Cassini mission to Saturn. Some of them are truly spectacular, for both their scientific and aesthetic value. I was inspired to share these, too, and decided to create a short video that hopefully conveys a sense of wonder and awe about the ringed giant and its many moons. (See the references below.)

Thanks to well-timed email reminders from school staff, we attracted a sizeable crowd of parents and student - perhaps 35-40. As usual, the kids had outstanding questions and observations. I really love wandering into unexpected territory, lead only by their inquisitive minds! In fact, I'm thinking of a future astronomy night with little or no agenda, to let the kids decide where we'll journey. Hmm... I wonder what that would be like?

Thanks to the predictable clockwork of the cosmos, Io began its performance right on schedule. There were lots of "ooohs" and "aahhs" from the assembly. Alas, my only regret of the evening is my perpetual one - the lack of truly dark skies in Los Angeles. There's so much out there to see - if only we could turn off the lights!

Videos

• Saturn Through Cassini's Eyes [low resolution video (MPEG1) - 60MB]
• Saturn Through Cassini's Eyes [high resolution video (MPEG2) - 130MB]

(These files are very large. I don't recommend downloading them unless you have a high-speed (broadband) internet connection.)