Couple of months ago, my daughter's 1st grade teacher sent out an invitation to the parents if they would like to do some interesting presentation of their hobbies. ✨
I asked my daughter if it is something she would like and she loved the idea. She asked me several times in the last few weeks when I am going. 😊👧
Finally on Friday I decided to give it a try as the weather is now clear and I really wanted to take the kids outside as well and show them the real sky, not just a screen. 🔭☀️
Went on to repurpose one of my older presentations and update it with a lot more recent photos, the vast majority shot by myself. The class had a huge screen and it looked amazing. 🌠📸
I was positively surprised by all the comments and questions, I barely got to the end of the presentation with all the raised hands, comments and questions! 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️
Somebody even beat me at my own game by mentioning there are Moons in the solar system bigger than our own Moon. 🌕😄
I told him I don't know, that I would have to check online! Sure enough, there are 4 of them bigger than the Moon. 🌌
One of them asked, what is the biggest crater on the Moon? 🤔🌑
Hmm.. good question! I showed them Tycho and Copernicus on my pictures but I said surely there are bigger ones than these two, but I don't know which is the biggest.
Thankfully I was able to answer everything else but I have to admit, I did not expect so nice and well informed questions by a group of 1st graders! Job well done kids ✨
Then we went outside where I put a Baader Sun Filter on my Maksutov SVBony MK90. ☀️🔭
As I even personally feel uncomfortable observing the Sun visually with Baader film filters (they can get damaged, scratched etc etc), the only way I let them near the telescope was only through the sun being projected through a 20mm eyepiece on my secondary cell phone paired with the Tridaptor. 📱🌞
EAA for beginners, I guess 😄
As a nice compromise I had my 200mm sun filter laying around so I just let them look through it directly into the sun for a brief moment. At least a bit of safe visual taste. ☀️👀
We went on also to have a look at my EQ platform and explained why it is necessary, as we saw the Sun visibly move away from our view in the cellphone. 📱
As I received some of the pictures the teacher noted:
"Thank you, some of them are already saving for a telescope" 🥹🔭
I'd say, mission accomplished! 🚀✨