Astronomy Does Not Always Have to be Outdoors!

South Mountain Environmental Education Center celebrated their one year anniversary and invited us to be a part of it.  The event included displays of animals, birds, insects, and plants in the park.  Also how animals are electronically tracked, what their footprints look like, and some cool bones!  There were activities and games for all!  Here was our display which included how our Sun Spotter works, hand outs on how to buy your first telescope and what is currently in the night sky.  Activities like placing vials of elements in their proper place on a Periodic Table of the Elements and understanding where they came from, experimenting with meteorites, studying a Moon globe, holding a precision gyroscope demonstrating how the earth moves, how to safely look at the sun during the upcoming Solar Eclipse, and understanding the differences in telescopes.  Here Tom is explaining a model of the relative sizes of the Sun and Earth.  What a fun day for all!