This year Bay Elementary School’s summer SPICE program featured NASA and Space. We were glad to support the program with a daytime solar star gaze. The only party not fully cooperating was our atmosphere. It was very cloudy by the time the students had finished the NWFAA presentation about our closest star – the Sun. There was lots of waiting for the Sun to peek out of the clouds. However, the students patience paid off and the clouds started to break and ultimately the skies were mostly clear.
 Frank shows off his scope while waiting for the clouds to clear. |
 Finally, the clouds started to break and lines formed at the scopes. |
 The line at Dennis’ H-Alpha scope. |
 Robert’s 8″ Celestron was used to view the sunspot. |
 Dean’s H-alpha scope shows off the small prominence. |
 Viewing the solar spectrum through Tom’s spectroscope. |
Frank Atchison, Dean Covey, Tom Haugh, Dennis Hausch and Robert Sutphen all brought instruments to support the event. Eventually everyone got to see the Sun in each of the devices that we had set up. In addition to the solar disk, the students were able to see one large sunspot and one small prominence.
We would like to thank the staff of Bay Elementary School for the invitation to share our passion for Astronomy and for the photo of the entire gang. We also thank our unofficial club photographer ,Marietta Hausch, for the additional event pictures.