Hi gang,

It's confirmed, the Cub Scouts are coming to our club meeting this Saturday.
As usual, we will meet at the Lester Hospital conference room (7PM) and as
usual, the forecast calls for clouds :-( It is still early though so let's
hope the forecast is wrong. In any case, part of what the scouts would
benefit from is some hands on learning about telescopes, even if it is
indoors. If it is at least partly clear, we will be setting up just outside
the hospital in the field next to the helipad.

Unless someone else would like to do it, I'm putting together a presentation
based on ones I've used at elementary schools in the past. I'll let you all
know if I need some folks to help with the presentation.

Beyond that, bring your gear. Keep in mind these are elementary school kids
so you might not want to bring your most expensive eyepieces. Also, they
will be short (they are kids) so if the eyepiece of your scope is higher
than about 3 feet, it would be good to bring something sturdy for them to
stand on. We will want to show them the Moon (we'll have just about the
best possible phase - 4 days old crescent), Saturn (unfortunately with
practically no rings) and maybe some bright clusters (M3 in bigger scopes
should look nice). Keep it bright and simple though as most kids are
looking for Hubble-like views.

Be prepared to answer questions like how much does your scope cost (to which
you can be frank but also point out that they can get started for a couple
hundred dollars), how much does it magnify (to which you should probably
explain several hundred times but 50 to 150 magnification is most commonly
used and aperture is much more important in order to collect more light and
show fainter objects) and how far away is that thing we're looking at (I'll
leave you to research that one on your own :-).

If you have friends with kids (or if you have kids) this would be a good
time to invite them out.

Best regards,
Mike
http://www.NexStarSite.com/rac.htm