Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri

While I was not at this event, I will record what was given me regarding this night.

The weather was great and the campers were well-aware of our scopes being set up at Klondike. It was estimated that more than 75 people came thru (before the count was lost when it got darker).

About 7-8 scopes (and binos) were available. Those who brought scopes to serve the public included John Furlong, Amy White, Ryan, Brad Griffith, Mark Shea, Kirk Steinbrugge, and Cook Feldmann.

A big highlight of the evening was the passing of the International Space Station, attached to the Space Shuttle. The majority of the crowd was very early, and got to see the moon, Saturn, and Mars. Most campers cleared out by 10:30, and most scopes shut down on or before 11:30 pm.

This event was the first “fair-weather” event of the year with the count parks (not including the February eclipse!). The forecast was very iffy, and we were thankful for the very clear skies that we enjoyed.

Jim T.

As we had two events on the same night, we split forces at Klondike and Cuivre River. Marvin Stewart and I took Cuivre River, knowing that Klondike was in good hands.

The skies were great on this Saturday night, but the clearing was fairly small. We started setting up our two scopes on the paved turn-around at the end of the road in the camping site. As we did, several kids on bikes became very interested in what we were doing. Some mentioned that they had been to some of our previous events at Klondike and Brommelsiek.

The kids were anxious, and we started entertaining as soon as we got set up around 8:20, showing them the moon even before the sun had set! As it got a bit darker, we started showing them Saturn and Mars. The kids were then summoned for a talk before we “officially” began. After that, we continued showing Saturn (until it was lost in the trees) as well as M3, M13, M4, M57, M51, M27, M81/82, Albireo, and more.

We took a 3 minute “time-out” to watch the ISS flyby (with the Space Shuttle attached), which was the “big event” of this outing.

Most of the kids left for “story time” around 10:30, but a few adults spent a lot of time with us getting views of the deeper objects. After story time, a few more adults and some of the kids came back for “seconds” and got to see the galaxies and the “Boy Scout Star” (Albireo). The night was just getting perfect (the moon had set) around 12:30am, but without a campsite for us we decided to pack in it and get home. The stragglers who were camping hung in with us until we pulled the plug.

Our hosts were great to us, providing bottled water and even ice cream (from story time)! I think we all had a great time and we really enjoyed the nice clear skies that had been so rare during the past several rainy months.

Jim T.

Looking forward to another great year of sharing views with the public. Mark your calendars. Here’s the schedule for 2008:

Sat… Apr… 26 … Broemmelsiek Park
Fri …May … 9 … Broemmelsiek Park
Sat… Jun … 7 … Klondike Park
Fri … Jul … 11 … Broemmelsiek Park
Sat … Aug … 2 … Broemmelsiek Park
Sat … Sep… 6 … Broemmelsiek Park
Sat … Oct… 4 … Klondike Park

Note that our new site at Broemmelsiek features nice restrooms, telescope pads, and an observatory building.

Directions to Broemmelsiek: From Hwy 40/61 at Winghaven, take Hwy DD south 4 miles, then make a right on Schwede Road. Go west on Schwede about one mile, it is the 2nd park entrance on your right (one block west of where we met last year).

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ASEM’s first public fund-raiser was a Trivia Challenge held on Saturday, May 17. 2008 at the Elk’s Lodge in O’Fallon, Missouri About 90 people attended and, by all accounts, had a great time.  Master of Ceremonies and Quiz Master, Bob Judd set the pace for the theme Stars of the Universe with his costume as some sort of alien life form.  Special thanks go to all who participated and helped, but especially Bob and Yvonne Roe who worked so hard recruiting players and door prizes.

A view of the participants

Bob with Heads or Tails winner

First Place Winners led by Brad Griffith

Second Place winners led by Jim Twellman

The skies didn’t do us any favors on this warm night. Satellite projections showed some possibility of clouds clearing around 8 or 9pm, but it did not happen.

Despite the greater than 75% cloud cover (we often cancel at 75%+), John Furlong as well as Jim and Ann Trull (and myself) brought scopes and binos and crossed our fingers on the weather. Nothin’ doin’. We set up shop around 6:30 pm and had some ‘customers’ at 7pm.

Although the skies were totally cloudy, a nice crowd showed up anyway. About 70 overall with more than half from Francis Howell middle school eighth graders. We showed students and their parents (along with other guests) how our scopes worked, and many looked thru them at neighboring barns and sheds about 3/4 mile away until it got too dark to do so. We also described some of the things we would be able to see if the skies were clear.

Most of the 8th graders and their families packed it out between 8:30 and 9:00. Our die-hards hung in with us until around 9:30, and then some of us also started packing it in. Tom Richards then showed up, and gave some of us hope for a short window of clear skies, which came in around 10:15. We still had plenty of moonshine (!) so it wasn’t as dark as many would like. We had some quick views of Saturn (very nice and steady!), as well as some double stars Iota Cancri and Izar. Unfortunately, at around 10:45 the dew was strong - looking around us we noticed the fog had rolled in big-time. So, all was packed up and out of there around 11:10.

Despite the total shut-out by Mother Nature, we did manage to have a crowd and we did manage to show them a few things. We are hoping that Ma Nature will be more kindly to us at our next event - Saturday June 7th at Klondike Park near Augusta MO.

Jim T.

PS. This part of the park is open 24×7. Powered outlets are available at the telescope pads, and restrooms are open and available. Plan on using this new site whenever you’d like to get the telescope out and the streetlight in your front yard is too much for you. A few of us showed up last Saturday and Sunday nights. Bring your scope out, you never know who you might run into out there!