Observing Report - August 13 Arizona Sonora Desert Museum "Cool Summer Nights"

Location: Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ, multiple locations on the grounds

Weather: 100+F mid-day, 90+F at sunset, 80F when we quit near 8:30 PM. Open sky before sunset but thunder heads moving in and over us, at and sfter dusk. Lightning caused a halt in the operations.

Seeing and Transparency: Better than average until after dusk, then sucker holes were stable but sparse.

Equipment:
10" Meade SCT on an Atlas EQ-G mount
Mallincam Xterminator video system on the 10", 19" QFX LCD monitor.

This observing session was in support of the ASDM Cool Summer Nights Saturday night fiesta. The astronomy part of the night was provided by several organizations; seven astronomers and six telescopes from Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, and additional scopes and support from ASDM, National Optical Astronomy Organization, and the International Dark Sky Association. We were scattered at several venues around the grounds, so my direct involvement was to set up at Cat Canyon with Bob Williams and his Celestron 11" scope, and Peter Bibbo joining us without a scope and acted as additional guidance and helping with the visitor load.

The support from the staff at ASDM was great, picking us and our equipment up with golf carts at our vehicles and transporting us to and from our setup locations. The only suggestion I'd make for the future is to consider having the astronomers park in the spaces normally reserved for buses; that would keep the volunteers consolidated and the transportation shorter and less impeded by the regular guests and traffic. Otherwise, the setup and adminsitration seemed very well thought out and supported.

It started out as a great evening. After Bob and I got dropped off and we set up, and Peter joined us, I set my video view on the first quarter moon, while Bob did great finding Saturn, and later Jupiter, in the daylight sky. I was doing my usual discussion of the lunar origins and crater and maria configuration, and the combination of the Seas of Serenity, Tranquility, Fertility, and Crises forming a perfect Lunar Poodle, and the Apollo 11 Landing site was of interest to visitors as well. Bob, first with Saturn and then Jupiter with all four Galilean moons on one side, was the popular place while Peter was aiding in the crowd control and diseminating information. My estimate is that by thirty minutes after sunset or so, we already had nearly 100 people come through. I was struck by the number of very young children out for the adventure. With the less youthful folks we had some good exchanges about the beginings of the moon, how it progressed, evidence correlating lunar material with Earth crustal evidence, and the possibilities of future space exploration. The craters were putting on a show that highlighted the solar ray alignment, acting as bright beacons when the Sun's rays were favorably oriented. The Lunar Poodle, though, was almost as big a hit as Saturn and Jupiter, and once seen on the monitor could be detected naked eye on the brightly lit surface.

I was eagerly awaiting alignment stars to pop into view so I could jump over to more eye candy when I noticed the roiling thunderheads coming in from all directions. Weather reports had forecast clearing past 7 PM; Instead, by about 7:50, we were down to sucker holes and the lightning was fairly far off, but moving in. By about 8:20, the lightning had moved from over 10 miles out to within 4 miles. And our crowd had disipated as well, so Bob and I started shutting down. Scopes and humans don't take well to 200 kilovolt jolts. What an immense disappointment!

The visitors were fun to work with, and the way we all were distributed around the grounds was well thought out. If not for the major shift in the weather, Bob, Peter, and I would likely have had over 300 people at our location alone. This is a great concept in evironmental awareness, with the plant and animal displays sharing the stage with the rest of our home universe. We were able to get enough information shared that it was well worth the effort for the short time we had. This was my first outreach experience at ASDM, and I hope to have many more.

Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
gcsp@tucsonastronomy.org