On Wednesday 8th January Nigel Goodman and I went to Dirleton for a cold and frosty outreach event to meet pupils and parents of the local primary school.
Celebrating their success on completion of the Dirleton Solar Walk project we were asked by Daniel Arnold, who led the project and also an ASE member, to facilitate giving the pupils a view of the major planets and our moon. The forecast the previous week suggested a rare period of clear skies which gave some confidence to plan ahead!
I took the Society’s new 10” Dobsonian outreach scope and Nigel brought his SeeStar. We set these up on the village green which proved to be a reasonable location offering a wide view of the sky albeit surrounded by some street lights and two illuminated trees provided for the Christmas festivities.
Approximately 25-30 children and adults came along and had great views of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon, each met with grateful Ohoooo’s and Aaaah’s. The moon particularly offered spectacular clarity through the scope at low and high magnification and the Alpine Valley was visible in amazing detail. The SeeStar was utilised to offer sights of Andromeda, M42 and the Horsehead nebula which added a few deep sky objects to the experience. You can see some of these images below.
From setting up, which began at 5.30 to finishing at 8.00pm, the whole event was enjoyable and fun for all those involved, hopefully inspiring a few young future enthusiasts in Astronomy through a sense of awe and wonder in what they observed.
Andrew Farrow
