Activities for Group Visitations

Theme: Comets, Asteroids and Meteors

Typical group size: 10-30 people
Typical duration: 60-120 min

Introductory Slideshow

There is a powerpoint slideshow on the lab laptops entitled comets.ppt that has several images of Comets, Asteroids and Meteor Showers. One can get through this in about 15 minutes.

Making Craters

Making a Dry Ice Comet

Finding Micrometeorites (optional)

Observing on the Roof

Theme: The Moon

Introductory Slideshow

Phases of the Moon Demonstration

Theme: Columbia University Astronomy Department

Ask ahead of time if there is a particular subject that the school wants discussed. If not, this is a good 1 to 1.5 hour presentation that can be very interactive as long as you encourage the students to ask a lot of questions and you ask questions of the students (e.g. instead of defining a galaxy, ask the class, "Who knows what a galaxy is? How many stars are in a galaxy? What's the size of a galaxy?" etc.)

Introductory slide show

Show the night sky slide show appropriate for the particular season. There's usually enough content to engage the audience for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Tour of the domes/telescopes

Weather permitting, solar and even lunar observations (in the morning, 3rd quarter moons are visible from the roof and in the afternoon, 1st quarter moons) can be made from the roof using the Coronado and a six-inch Dobsonian. Even if the weather is bad, show them the dome and discuss the rationale for its size (a refracting telescope) show how to move the dome, raise and lower the floor, and open the slit. Discuss the difference between refracting and reflecting telescopes._

Other presentations

Kitt Peak National Observatory slide show by Lia is particularly good for showing students what a research-class observatory looks like.