Astronomy Associates of Lawrence Activities

AAL Activities Index
[May 2006 Farpoint Trip] [March 2007 Girl Scout Workshop] [May 2007 Planetary Imaging Presentation] [June 20, 2007 Public Observing Session]

[Top]

On Sunday evening of August 31, 2008 the Astronomy Associates of Lawrence held a public observing session at Praire Park Nature Center. Several members of the club brought telescopes ranging in aperature from 5 inches to 13 inches. Jupiter, and a number of Messier objects (M32, M13, M57, ...) were observed. The parking lot lights were supposed to have been turned of by 8:30 but they stayed on until about 9:30. When the lights went off we pointed the telescopes to the deep sky objects and we were actually able to see the Milky Way. I had my vintage 8 inch Criterion Dynamax set up as well (not pictured). When it seemed like the parking lot lights were not going to be turned off we moved my Dynamax out of the parking lot and into a darker area in the weeds behind some trees in order to provide some views of M13 and M57.
Rick Heschmeyer's 5 and 8 inch Celestrons. Larger Image	William Winkler's 6 inch dobsonian. Larger Image	Rex Powell with his 13 inch dobsonian. Larger Image
Karen Camarda's 8 inch dobsonian. Larger Image	Karen Camarda's 8 inch dobsonian. Larger Image	Rex Powell with his 13 inch dobsonian. Larger Image

On Wendsday evening of June 20, 2007 the Astronomy Associates of Lawrence held a public observing session after the Lawrence Band concert. Several members of the club brought telescopes ranging in aperature from 5 inches to 13 inches. Bruce Twarog helped members set up their telescopes. Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and a waxing crescent Moon were visible. During the middle of the observing session Rick Heschmeyer pointed out the International Space Station and the space suttle Atlantis as they made their way across the sky.
Rick Heschmeyer's 5 and 8 inch Celestrons. Larger Image	William Winkler's 6 inch dobsonian. Larger Image	Rex Powell explaining the fine points of observing with his 13 inch dobsonian. Larger Image
George Brenner's 11 inch Celestron. Larger Image	David Kolb's vintage 8 inch Criterian. Larger Image

[Top]

PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint presentation on webcam imaging of planets given May 11, 2007.
Windows Media Player version 9 is embedded within the presentation for playing animations so you need to have Media Player version 9 to play the animations.

[Top]

On Friday evening of March 02, 2007 the Astronomy Associates of Lawrence held a workshop for the Lawrence Girl Scouts, which allowed the participants to earn their sky search badges. Several indoor activities were held, and included building star wheels, lunar phases demonstrations, and telescopes. After the indoor activities were completed a couple of telescopes were set up outside and the girls were allowed to view the Moon, Saturn and the Orion Nebula. They also learned to identify some of the brighter Winter constellations and learned to use the star wheels that they had made.

Larger Image

[Top]

On May 12, 2006 members of Astronomy Associates of Lawrence traveled to Auburn, Kansas to see the 27 inch telescope that once was part of the University of Kansas Observatory in its new role as an asteroid patrol telescope. The only remaining part of the original telescope are the optics. The telescope optics were donated to the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers´ League (NEKAAL ) for use in their NASA funded asteroid search program. About six members of AAL made the trip out to the Farpoint Observatory and watched the NEKAAL members as they observed several near earth asteroids in order to obtain better positional data. Here are some pictures of the 27 inch telescope.
Larger Image	Farpoint Observatory 27 inch telescope. Auburn, KS
Larger Image	Farpoint Observatory and 27 inch telescope.
Larger Image	Farpoint Observatory and 27 inch telescope. Wider angle view.
Larger Image	AAL members Bill Winkler (on ladder) and Richard Kroes (with camera) inspecting the 27 inch telescope.
Larger Image	AAL member Bill Winkler and a member of NEKAAL inspecting the 27 inch telescope.
Larger Image	Moonrise behind the 27 inch telescope.
Larger Image	Another moonrise picture.
Larger Image	The Moon and Jupiter rising.