Tony's star party report

I really meant to have a report out before now, but that's just life. :-)

We had a really great time on Tuesday night! Skies were not perfect but fine enough for our purposes. About 60 students and family came out to Park Lithuania and were received by 7 RASC TC members and their 'scopes. Wow! What a turnout! The range of 'scopes available to view Saturn, Mars, the Moon, double stars, the Orion Nebula and more were: tripod-mounted binos, several short refractors, a 5" Mak-Cass, a 8" Schmidt Cass, an 8" and 12.5" Dobsonians! We ran from about 8:15 PM to 10:15.

There were several interesting visitors too, probably most of all was a quite elderly grandmother who could only speak with us via the translation of her 11-year old son (in Russian?). She bounced from one 'scope to another, hungrily soaking up the photons processed by each, all the while posing incessant questions about the view/object, or about the sky overhead. She was obviously rekindling long ago fond memories of sky watching. As always, a green laser pointer was efficient in guiding newbies to the points of interest. What did we do before pointers?!

I was quite impressed - and proud - of the courteous and enthusiastic manner of or volunteers (as is usual) and this was not lost among our visitors. In fact, I understand there was quite a buzz in the school the next morning after the star party. Thanks from the RASC Toronto Centre go to the following members for their kind participation in stimulating the community of Keele Street School:

John Bohdanowicz
Bob Dorcas
Denis Grey
Tony Horvatin
Scott Masterton
Blake Nancarrow
William Stanley

Take a bow all!

Special thanks go to Scott and Bob as these two gents came down from Unionville and Alliston respectively!!

If you missed out on assisting at this event, don't worry because in about a week's time there will be another such event arranged at a west Toronto public school, organized by Blake Nancarrow. Stay tuned....

Regards,
Tony :-)