Great Expectations School visited by A.A.S. by Eric Norlandthe3rd

On Thursday May 24^th, Great Expectations charter school in Grand Marais, Minnesota was visited by two Arrowhead Astronomical Society members- Mike Sangster and Eric Norland. The two arrived at the school on a rainy afternoon, after eating a lunch at Sven and Oles. There, they met with teacher Ilena Berg. After setting up three telescope displays, the seminar was presented to 16 students ranging in ages of 11 to 14 years old.

Norland opened the program by wearing his Mars mission spacesuit and talked to the students about what dangers might be expected when humans visit Mars. He also showed artistic renditions of Mars and talked about the prominent Martian features, such as Olympus Mons and Valles Marinaris.

The next topic Norland discussed was the scale of the solar system and the size of the sun in comparison to the planets. Then followed an idea about the distance to the nearest star and he showed a small box of props which helped give students an understanding of the size of the universe. He then showed a model of the Milky Way Galaxy and finally presented a conceptual idea of the size of our local group of galaxies if the Milky Way were condensed to a grain of sand.

Mike Sangster showed the children some slides describing how telescopes work and demonstrated each of his three different styles of telescopes set up before the students. First he showed the refractor, then the Dobsonian and next a Schmidt Cassegrain. Sangster also encouraged students to build their own telescope, such as he did with his 6 inch Dob. The highlight was when he walked around and allowed students to peer down the tube and see the inner workings of a reflecting telescope. “Hey I see myself magnified!” exclaimed one student.

What followed next were questions by the students. They were intrigued by black holes, worm holes, why Pluto was demoted and of course – space aliens. Overall, they were wonderful students and very attentive throughout.

After waiting out the pouring rain and eating at the Blue Cove restaurant, the intrepid astronomers checked into the local hotel room supplied by Peter, the principal of Great Expectations. He and his wife operated

the hotel, which is located about four miles east of Grand Marais, along highway 61. They graciously donated the room, which had with two beds for the visiting educators.

At around 8:30P.M. the skies cleared and the astronomers headed up to teacher Patsy’s home on top of the hill above Grand Marais. It had rained so hard that the steep road was slippery with mud. Once at the top, the duo set up two telescopes and started observing the moon, Saturn and Venus. All of the students arrived and brought with their parents. For awhile it was a frenzy of activity with long lines waiting to see the celestial wonders. They were ‘ooing and ahhing’ everything. The seeing only lasted about one hour when clouds rolled back in.

After a well-rested night, a clear morning, dawned with vivid blue sky. A return journey was made back to the school to talk to the students about the sun and look through Sangsters 8 inch Meade with a solar filter. Norland began his sun talk by saying, “The sun that we see in the sky is the same sun the dinosaurs saw and early man warmed himself by.” Then he went on to tslk about the internal characteristics of the sun and how it is a G2 star. Sangster then talked about never looking at the sun with a telescope except with a solar filter and then what to look for on the sun. The sun, on this morning, proved to be pretty dull for observing, as not a sunspot was to be seen. This did not dampen the enthusiasm of the students, they asked questions and marveled at observing our nearest star.

Overall it was a very successful journey to Great Expectations School. Ms. Berg, was very cordial, interested and relaxed through all of the activity. The two astronomers had the winds of good luck with them to clear the skies long enough to allow young minds to open up and see the grandeur of the cosmos.