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Two summers ago I was told that I would teach the teenage boys at Tuesday School, our church’s weekly class day for its homeschool families. I spent many weeks trying to decide what subject would really benefit them and yet be fun for all of us. Since I had always wanted to learn about the night sky, I chose astronomy. Now I had an opportunity to drag a bunch of boys I really love into this subject with me.
Our class had a couple of star parties of our own, but not having a large telescope, we were limited on what we could see. So we were excited about going to Kansas City, Missouri to an astronomy safari given by the Creation Science Institute of Mid America. We went September of 1998. While we waited for our turn to look through the big telescope, the boys looked for Messier objects with their binoculars. When the instructor noticed this, he took the time to tell us about the Messier award. Seven boys, six of whom are taller than I, immediately surrounded me.
“Can we do that, Mrs. Champ? Can we get that certificate?” they asked excitedly.
I was as excited as they were because I wanted that award as badly as they did. Before we got home that night we decided we were going to earn that certificate. Later that week I searched the Internet and found out about the Astronomical League. Since it was just what we were looking for, we joined. That is how the Aquila Astronomical Society came to be.
We call ourselves the Astronuts because we are nuts about astronomy. Through the Astronomical League, we have set some important goals. Not only do we want the Binocular Messier award, we also want to earn the Lunar certificate and the Meteor Observer award.
November 16 the Astronuts spent the night at Mrs. Champ’s house for a meteor shower party. This was the first time any of the Astronuts had seen a meteor shower. Many prayers were offered for clear weather. God gave them a beautiful night. All of the warmly dressed members sat in lawn chairs to see the event. All of the anticipation was rewarded. The Astronuts were not disappointed, for this turned out to be a spectacular meteor shower. As classical music played the meteors streaked across the sky. The metors were bright with long tails. The Astronuts saw 253 meteors from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. and six fire balls. It was well worth staying up for.
The Astronuts did not miss the Geminid shower. Again since Mrs. Champ lives in the country and has dark skies they stayed at her house. Again the Astronuts sat their lawn chairs out under a clear night to watch the show. This time they were going to record their observations for the Astronomical League because the Meteor certificate is one of the club's goals. As the classical music played, they did their best to record each meteor. They did not do a very good job this first time. Keeping records was harder than they thought it would be. . The shower was worth the trouble and the members got some good practice. Next time they hope to do better at recording.
May 22 was National Astronomy Day. We had a big astronomy day at the church. We had a game with audience participation. The boys had a list of people they want to surprise. We had short speeches about our club, what we have done, and what we have planned for next year. Then we invited others to join. I warned one of the ladies that was interested in joining that astronomy is a disease. She said that it was one disease she wanted to catch. We enjoyed cookies and punch afterward. The funny part about this is that we planned the program and choose the day without knowing that it was Astronomy Day. We found out after we picked the date. We like the coincidence.
July 16, 199 the Astronuts traveled north to the Powelll
Observatory where The Astronomical Society of Kansas City has a
thirty inch telescope. There they heard a very interesting
presentation on astrophotography. Many of the members of the
astronuts are very interested in astrophotography, so they were
pleased. Afterwards they spent several hours viewing the wonders of
the night sky using the 30 inch reflector and an eight inch Dobsonian
that a very thoughtful member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas
City. They had a wonderful time. They only left because their driver
gave them no choice. They do plan another trip to that telescope.
If you would like to visit Powell Observatory, click this link to visit the home page of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City . All the information you need to contact them can be found there.