National Night Out

Last evening, I remembered that it was our Texas version of National Night Out (NNO) when I saw the 6PM news coverage of some events near San Antonio. Some months ago I had decided that the NNO might make a great time to have a neighborhood star party.

I walked to the front of the house and saw that the sky was relatively clear. We have recently had a lot of clouds, and I was a little surprised that there were few clouds in the sky.

It took almost 5 minutes to set up my Orion XT10 in the driveway and focus it on Jupiter. With a 10 mm eyepiece, the magnification was 120 times and the brightness was such that the bands of Jupiter were clearly visible.

Three star-like moons were arrayed to the right of Jupiter, toward the East it turns out. Jupiter would slip off the left side of the field of view every couple minutes. The fourth major moon of Jupiter was not visible behind its disc.

The top equitorial band (the southern one) had a great lump in its top edge. There was a small dark spot just to the right side of the lump within the band. In moments of clarity and improved seeing, I could make out the internal border of the Great Red Spot. Over the course of the evening, that Red Spot moved leftward (westward) until it seemed to be falling off the left side of the Jupiter "marble".

During the two hours I had my scope up, different groups of my neighbors that had been at the formal celebration of NNO at our pool walked past the house. I genially called them over to take a look at Jupiter. One group of kids, with their mom, spent quite a bit of time learning how to readjust the scope to put Jupiter back in the center of the field of view.

They had lots of good questions. How big is Jupiter compared with Mars and with Earth? How far away is it? Why are the moons in a line? What causes the bands on Jupiter and the Great Red Spot?

I had done some thinking since a couple recent star parties, and decided to try to answer the questions with the purpose of helping them to think about the process of science instead of a science text book. The same way that I had helped them learn to find Jupiter when it slid out of the field of view, instead of doing that myself, I wanted them to think about the answers to their questions.

So I helped them think through their questions instead of giving them textbook answers. How could one find out how big Jupiter is? How would it be possible to find out how far away Jupiter is? How long does it take for light from Jupiter to get to the earth? Why would you believe my answers when there are good ways of finding out answers?

It was interesting to see their reaction. They clearly expected to be told the answers to their questions - just like I was some kind of encyclopedia or Google search engine. But when I started asking questions in return, they either took it well or did not. Some were interested in the guy with the telescope that asked questions and some were bored.

I hope the effort will encourage some kid to get a little more interested in science questions. Maybe they will become interested enough to take a little more science than they were expecting to take in school. Maybe they will make a little better citizen or jurror in a case that involves scientific testimony. Maybe one of them will invent the cure for whatever disease or injury is going to try to do me in 20 years from now - or one of my children or grandchildren.

It felt good to challenge my charges a little.

Dark Skies!
Risk