Thursday 29 January 2009

Starry, starry day

The crew from Starry Night came to our home school group today for an astronomy workshop. They come with an inflatable dome that has a projection of the constellations on it, which was really fantastic!

I was organising the day, which I took on since Littletree is so fascinated with astronomy at the moment, so we got to watch them setting up, which was cool.

I took a bunch of photos of them setting up, of course:

49 HS starry night dome

50 HS starry night dome

51 HS starry night dome

53 HS starry night dome

Something about being homeschoolers, most of the group were drifting in a bit late, but in the end everyone arrived just in time, and Marie gave a talk about planets and stars with the kids.

58 HS starry night dome

60 HS starry night dome

We all (well, most of us), posed out the front for a group photo too.

61 HS starry night dome

Entering the dome was very womb-like 

62 HS starry night dome

But once we were in there it was much roomier than it seemed :)

63 HS starry night dome

Marie did a great job of explaining the constellations, and the kids all had a great time, shouting out answers. 

64 HS starry night dome

Of course, once the lights went out, we couldn't take more photos

65 HS starry night dome

I think my favourite part was when Marie asked a question, and one of the kids (don't know who it was in the dark), answered correctly, and Marie asked how he knew the answer. The reply came,

"I'm home schooled and I love learning" :)

8 comments:

  1. That is the coolest! I want one of those domes for my house!! :-)

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  2. Wow! We would love to have a session like this, it looks like lots of fun!

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  3. This looks like an amazing experience! what a clever idea. Did LT enjoy learning more about the stars? I wonder if the telescope will become a priority again now she's had her enthusiasm renewed? xXx

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  4. Those domes are great.
    Katie and I went in one at a Macquarie Uni Open Day a few years ago. She loved it.
    Thanks for the link. I'm going to check it out for Katie's school. Hopefully someone in Sydney might be doing these workshops...:)

    How did you find out about it?

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  5. yep, littletree is still pretty keen on getting a telescope.

    and anne, I found out about it through a friend :) Then we met the starry night people when they did a moon viewing with their big telescope at our local cafe, a few months back.

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  6. Wow, I can't believe how many homeschoolers there must be in your area. If only we had that kind of community and support *sigh*

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  7. I just got this information from the Starry night crew:
    "we know a fellow called Greg Zenner who has the same type of planetarium and who visits schools. He might be available for your friends. I think his business is called Skyworks, and as he is registered with the NSW Education Dept, could be found through their list of approved performers."
    so if anyone is in sydney and wants to organise something like this, there's a good lead to follow up :)

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Thanks for your lovely words, witty banter and entertaining discussion :)