What's a Star Party ?
Invite your students, invite their parents, invite other teachers to come out and see
the stars, nebulae, globular clusters and constellations in all their glory. I bring up
to three small small telescopes; ones like families may have at home, and set them
up and let everyone look at various objects in the sky. I have a CCD camera that
will hook up between a telescope and a laptop computer, and a color TV camera
that will broadcast to a small television. These are viewing aids for groups.
Conditions:
Of course to look at the stars the sky must be clear and fairly still. If it's cloudy or
a stiff breeze is blowing, viewing will be virtually impossible. Winter is best because
skies are so clear; but it's also cold. I'm not going out in extremely cold weather, nor
do I expect parents and kids to do it. Spring is good because there are more objects
in the night sky to locate and view.