[Chaos-l] UNC Science Expo

[Tony Rice]

Manned a table today at the UNC Science Expo which caps off the 2 week
long NC Science Festival.  Morehead is reporting "thousands" attended
and I'm estimating (I'm really bad at this) at least 800 people
stopped by the table.  I handed out 250 copies of a brochure on buying
your first telescope (typical advice, get a star chart first, consider
binoculars, avoid Christmas trash scopes, bang for the buck from Dobs
and Newtonians), along with hundreds of other bookmarks and materials
from NASA.

I had my Dob there with a solar filter lost count of the people I
showed sunspots to before sun went behind one of those huge oak trees
on campus.  Also had a galileoscope (borrowed my kid's school) and my
9 year old graciously loaned his Celestron Firstscope which many
parents found very interesting and I heard "Christmas" whispered a
couple times out of kid earshot.  Also had out a pair of cassegrains
left on Morehead's doorstep a few years ago.  They are sturdy and
stood up to kids experimenting with them very well.  The 6 scopes we
had there were rounded out by a 4" Celestron newtonian.  Equatorial
and alt-az mounts represented making that easy to compare and
demonstrate.

Morehead really knows how to run an event.  There were tons of student
volunteers that helped cart equipment to our spot.  It was very well
organized.  Organizers brought (free) lunch tickets right to us.

I'm beat after spending the whole day in and out of the sun so I wont
be joining everyone at the picnic.  This was a great event that UNC is
hoping to make annual.  Attendance was great and there was plenty to
talk about with those that visited, even in the daylight.  We should
consider having a bigger table next year with more CHAOS volunteers.

-Tony