Great students!

I had about twenty wonderful, bright and serious home school students for last Thursday night's Beginning Astronomy class. Jim Moe and Peter Stanistreet both brought scopes (Peter set his up in the store) and after class both helped us outside with viewing of Saturn for all the class members and their parents, plus a few B&N customers who happened by.

We viewed some photos, went over our Sun's place in the Milky Way, looked at pictures of how some of the main celestial objects (clusters, double stars, nebulae, etc.) look. The kids made their own Planispheres (search for Uncle Al's Sky Wheels on the web, courtesy of the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkely, CA). We did a demo of why the constellations look different each season (thanks Brian and Katherine!) and then reviewed the main types of telescopes and binoculars. Then it was outside for some viewing. Jack and Katherine and their mom stayed the longest, and Jack got pretty good at using the Telrad to push the 8" dob around - great job! Due to the lighting (and the big building behind us) Saturn was about all we could see. I tried to find M13 using the COL after aligning on Arcturus and Spica, but it was lost in the glare of the building lights unfortunately.

The store staff was very helpful, especially Bob, who worked with us to hang the screen for the Powerpoint presentation, arranged all the furniture, helped unload and pack up and was there for the whole class in case we needed anything (while of course continuing to do his job at B&N). Thanks to Sally the Customer Relations Manager for inviting me, and for arranging permission with the Mall owners for our outdoor observing after class.

Hope we see all you guys at a Sidewalk Astronomy event sometime this summer!