Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Highland Road BREC Park Observatory Fieldtrip

On Tuesday, February 26th, we had a fieldtrip at the Highland Road BREC Park Observatory.

First we started off with a powerpoint presentation about the sun and the moon including solar flares and sunspots, lunar craters and maria.
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After the presentation, we broke into 2 groups. One group toured the observatory and looked the telescope outside to see a solar viewing while the other group made a planisphere (star map).

Our group making the planisphere.
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Our group with the completed planispheres
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The other group working on theirs.
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Touring the telescope room
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The dome runs on a track so that they can point the telescope in whatever direction they need too without opening the whole roof.
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Looking through the telescope at the sun...We were able to see sun spots. It basically looked like a circle with 3 black dots. At first, I couldn't see anything but then realized that was all it was. The worker kept having to adjust the telescope because the earth kept moving!
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