Talking about Cassini

Last Friday night I had the honor and pleasure to give a talk on the Cassini-Huygens mission at the newly dedicated McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord.

I was not expecting this, but at the last minute our Astronomy club (New Hampshire Astronomical Society) got a call that the original speaker could not make it, and could we cover the talk.

The club's Educational Outreach Committee (which is fairly new, having met only about four times) came together in the clutch. One member set up web conferences so we could work on the presentation together. Another contacted Jane Houston Jones, JPL Outreach Senior Coordinator for the Cassini mission, who provided us with endless material. On Wednesday I put together an outline of the talk and that evening members of the committee signed up for various sections. Then each person combed through all the JPL presentations looking for the slide or video that best described each item, from launch through the Huygens probe landing on Titan, to the icy moons, Saturn itself, its rings, and finally the Equinox extended mission plans.

Three of us met at Panera's in Concord at 5pm on Friday and went over the talk, had a quick bowl of soup and then headed over to the Discovery Center. We had about 30 people attending including a troop of Boy Scouts who asked the most (and best) questions. We ended the evening with two NHAS members outside operating three scopes so all the kids and parents could see Saturn for real. It was a great ending to a really enjoyable evening.