Join Martin Park on Sunday afternoons 2pm - 4pm in July and August to learn more about the big, bright ball of burning gases that sits about 149.6 million miles away from us. That’s right, we’re talking about the Sun, or Sol, as we like to call our local star. We’ll have a solar telescope so you can safely look at the Sun’s features up-close, fun facts to learn about our hot neighbor, and Friends of Martin Park will have craft kits available for purchase to make your very own kaleidoscope, sun catcher, or sun print art!
We are looking for two Club volunteers to man the telescope and trade off over the 2 hour period. You can also bring your own solar equipment for the public to look through.
Martin Nature Park Center visitor please use this link to register for the events. Registration is free for these events.
Just returned from the park. For those who may not know where it is, it’s just west of Mercy Hospital near Memorial and Meridian and the entrance is on the one way eastbound portion of Memorial. Any telescope is welcome, white light or solar. Our setup location is directly off the back porch of the Nature Center which provides shade, a/c in the building and they will provide cold drinks for us.
It went well. The clouds were mostly high clouds so didn’t really obscure the sun. Also had a few inquiries about the club. I plan to take a white light scope next Sunday as I don’t have a solar scope.
The nature center’s 76Ha was already set up and tracking flawlessly when we got there.
Jeremy brought his own Lunt, plus a seestar, plus a 70 mm old Celestron manual alt/az that he’d adapted with a funnel and filter for a pure white light reflection view. Genius.!
The Nature Center counted 41 participants at their tables, but we must have had all of them, plus 10-15 walk-through adults and children. Old Sol cooperated perfectly until a few moments of shadow in the last 15 minutes or so. But there was very little down time for the duration. Several people were very interested in joining the club.
I think it was a fine event for our outreach, and the Nature Center treated us very graciously.
Be aware that there is about a 100± yd walk from the parking lot to the building. You may want a wagon if you bring your own scope.
I hope more of us will help support this 2 hour event!
I DO plan to be there. I sure hope others can join me with or without their own solar setup. It’s a popular attraction as visitors enter and exit the building to the trails. Especially families with children! The Park provides a sturdy stepstool for kids.
Great outreach opportunities! Wish I had some signage or cards. OR to be really Hi-Tech, a printed or on-phone scan code to the club’s main website! would be really cool.
We are in the shade (except for the scope(s) of course), right next to the building with plenty of water support from the Staff.
They have added a pop-up too to keep viewers mostly out of the sun. And on the banner (toward the bottom) there is a QR code to connect the interested with the club. Thank you Marvin!
Brad,
Do you recall who created the QR Code (to the club’s website) that is shown on the banner? That is a very convenient resource and I want to be sure we return to the correct club resource (to avoid duplication).
We are fortunate to have members with many talents and I suspect that it could easily be Dave, Chris or Danny (and likely others.)
I asked Danny to provide the logo for the poster so I’d bet he is also responsible for the QR code. The Martin Park folks have encouraged us to share any literature about the club that we have and to my knowledge, we don’t have any handouts these days. (We used to.). Maybe we should print simple business cards with logo on one side, QR on the other to hand out at public events.
That’s a great idea. Having at least a simple business card (and possibly other literature to be determined and developed) which includes the QR code is a great idea and excellent outreach resource for all outreach efforts.
I hope this will become a standard part of all outreach efforts.
I’ll be happy to help with this. Who should I work through, or loop in?
(In the interim, I created and provided Marv with a QR Code (to the club website) to serve as an iPhone wallpaper / lock screen image…that is my easiest way to access a ready resource. Just like scanning an airline ticket from the wallet* on your iPhone.
*This is the other resource I’ve created for my YMCA member barcode.
I intended to be there last week, but forgot I had a class that afternoon.
I should be there this Sunday. I’ll have the A-frame sign and I have cards that I hand out. I’ll make up a template for some generic cards that anyone can make and hand out..
I’m not aware of any handouts. If someone has the template for them, please send it to me. And/or post it here.
@Mitche has already created some business cards with a QR code for @drmarvh44 to have available tomorrow. (I’ll create a separate thread about visual resources for outreach.)
