KELSEYVILLE— On Saturday July 20 Taylor held two celebrations honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. On Saturday afternoon Angelo Parisi, Taylor’s newly-hired observatory assistant, presented hands-on demonstrations, short lectures and Planetarium shows to honor Neil Armstrong and his crew Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Taylor docent Eduardo Alatorre assisted, along with Paloma Ralls. This was an afternoon program for children and their parents at which visitors could weigh themselves in lunar gravity on a modified bathroom scale, and jump to estimate the height to which they could jump if on the moon, learn about the distance and size of our moon and study models of the Saturn V rocket and the Lunar Landing module. And young visitors viewed a lunar photograph through binoculars and identified patterns on the moon resembling 10 animals.
In the evening, Friends of Taylor Observatory presented the monthly Window to the Universe program to an enthusiastic audience of over fifty. Friends of Taylor (FOTO) President, Bill Haddon, placed the Apollo 11 mission in the context of the great 20th century expeditions to the North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest and final the Moon, quoting President Nixon that the Apollo program was the greatest accomplishment of all time for the human race. For the lecture portion of the evening Angelo Parisi described the Apollo mission series in detail, which concluded in 1972 with Apollo 17. Models of the Saturn V rocket and the Lunar Landing craft enhanced the presentation.
Following the Angelo’s lecture, visitors viewed Apollo-related planetarium shows, hosted by Taylor docent Eduardo Alatorre, and then enjoyed excellent views of Saturn and Jupiter from the Nieman Star Deck, using both FOTO’s newly purchased 18 inch computer controlled Dobsonian scope, and the classic 10-inch Optical Craftsmen scope used by Evelyn Norton years ago. Bill Haddon, Tom Schleif and Eduardo Alatorre hosted the viewing session. The smaller diameter of the OC scope makes it ideal for planetary observations; Tom Schleif and local astronomer David Firebaugh have restored this scope, which was recently returned to Taylor after a long absence.
On August 24, Angelo Parisi and his “Big Bang Band Travelling Star Show” returns for the Window to the Universe series with a lively musical presentation at the Clear Lake State Park Campfire program. Admission to CLSP is free for this evening, which will also feature telescope viewing, with emphasis on Saturn and Jupiter, both near opposition and hence closer than usual to Earth. Perhaps the most popular astonomy event of the year is the Perseid meteor shower, peaking on August 12. Unfortunately a full moon will obscure most meteors, but early evening “earth grazers” could be prominent for several days around the peak.
