Jupiter and the Moon for Kids!

About 6 months ago I was contacted by a teacher at an elementary school about an hour away.  She said they wanted to try having an observing session in March, and could our club show up with some telescopes.  I said "Yes" and the other night the weather was clear so two of us who volunteered to bring our telescopes went to the school.  The teacher said that maybe no one would show up, but I was a bit nervous because usually we would have three or four telescopes for an event like this.

Well...  It felt as if the whole school showed up!  We have never had this many people, both parents and students at one of our events.  One of the teachers had a telescope and he showed up, so we had three telescopes there.  I felt badly that people had to wait in three long lines to observe Jupiter and a thin crescent Moon, but everyone, to a person, was so patient!  What a joy to have such a nice group of people there.

This is Don, one of our members, watching a student look through his telescope.  The parents and students were both so thankful for the chance to look through a telescope at celestial objects, many for the first time.

It is always a joy to see how some of the students were glued to the eyepiece, wanting to look for as long as they could at the Moon or Jupiter.  We let them look as long as they wanted, and the people in line behind them were patient.

And even the teachers got to look through a telescope as well!  They deserved it, given how much work and worry they put into this event.

And this gives you a sense of how many people were there.  Don's telescope was behind me and his line is not showing.  It was such a rewarding evening, made even better by the large attendance.  When Don and I were leaving we both talked about having a "buzz" because of how rewarding it is to be able to show people our universe and some of the amazing things that are in it.