[Chaos-l] Observing Session Last Night With Morehead

[Robert Nielsen]

Everyone,

I just wanted to thank all the members of CHAOS that came out last night to 
the observing session hosted by the Morehead Planetarium.   I think our 
presence made a BIG difference!  And while the observing conditions weren't 
the greatest (I had expected much worse when I saw those clouds on the 
horizon Saturday afternoon ... it actually wasn't that bad in the end), it 
is really important for us to do this kind of work for the community.   I 
was personally thanked by the leader from Morehead for bringing my scope 
out ... but more importantly I was thanked by a gentleman who was thinking 
about buying a telescope and even a couple of kids for further exciting 
their interest in astronomy.  That's the whole point of these sessions.

If anyone has ideas about things we (CHAOS) can do for these sessions, 
please post them to the listserv or tell one of the officers at a meeting 
(or if you happen to see them in Harris Teeter)!   Alice and I both 
realized that we didn't plan very well and forgot to bring CHAOS brochures 
for people who came ... we will do better next time and I was thinking we 
could even have something smaller and easier for all of us to carry around 
and pass out at these types of events like a business card.   I was also 
thinking someone could make up a sheet describing what people saw that 
night (last night would have included the Great Orion Nebula, Saturn, Comet 
Machholz, the moon, etc.) so they could take it home and remember what 
happened.   It's hard to remember (or worse yet) write down what Jon and 
Alice and Greg and everyone was telling you ... and at the bottom of this 
sheet we could advertise CHAOS.   These are just a couple of ideas ... I 
definitely DON'T want to make it look like the session is commandeered by 
CHAOS ... but I want people to know CHAOS is there and perhaps we can get a 
little bit of advertising if we also include the Morehead Planetarium on 
the cheat sheets ...

In any case, I think it turned out well.   Thanks again to everyone who 
came (even the ones that didn't bring scopes)!   And let's hope the dark 
sky site dries out by next month ...

Robert Nielsen