Deirdre Kelleghan  skysketcher@gmail.com
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Action Sun at St Pauls Senior Girls School Dublin 12 - What's up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

7/5/2012

 
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WOW !! this is huge in the hall
St Pauls Senior Girls National School in Greenhill’s Dublin 12 is just a few minutes’ walk from the house where I grew up.  It was fortuitous to have the opportunity to carry out my third Action Sun for a school in this area.

On June 25th 47 young girls from third class, took part in building the sun. This was a very positive group all eager to get going and get busy. Streamers of orange and red paper flew through the air in vast amounts. In a short time the photosphere began to grow in the schools courtyard.  

The activity of Action Sun supports the school curriculum in its art as it uses mixed media to create the sun. The program uses paint and paper to convey activity and explosive movement on the solar disc. Action Sun also supports primary school art as it enables children to use the characteristics of the materials to make structures and features on the solar disc. Making the sun in this way is both creative and explorative. Learning a little science through the arts facilitates the use of many kinds of intelligences.  The learning process in the making is as valuable as the finished suns. Textures and spatial   organisation also comes into the creation of this work. The girls at St Pauls School were very good at working as a group, helping each other out. They also made good decisions during the activity which showed they were an excellent team. This is kinesthetic learning, learning by doing. 

Action Sun compliments science in the primary school curriculum on several levels.   A short information talk in between making the suns features informs the children about our suns role in the solar system. We talk about the scale of the sun and the Earth. We talk about the energy of the sun and its function in relation to the other planets.  The mini talks make sure that the children understand that the sun is our main source of heat and light.  By building the sun the children learn by hands on investigation. The children literally explore the physical features of the sun with their hands in mini scale. A quick review of the evaluation sheets shows the quality of the learning. Several children not only drew sketches of the complex sun but also put in arrows to the different features and labelled them all correctly. The action of throwing the paper was very popular, signing their names was also a highlight and for some children carrying the sun into the hall was the stand out moment of the day.

When I look at the sun in my solar telescope I see a huge amount of detail and very often in the past I have shared that view with children. However it takes a long time to show this view to a large group as the sun presents as a small disc with tiny features. It is difficult for children to comprehend the enormous scale of our nearest star.  I put Action Sun together to bridge that gap and help more people achieve some understanding of this wonderful star in safety with a big fun element.

The features of the sun itself were totally new to this young group, but at the end of the programme words like photosphere, chromosphere, filaments, prominences and sunspots were all a little more familiar. We closed our eyes at the end of the build and held our faces up to the sun to feel its heat and remind ourselves that it takes eight minutes for its light to get to us here on Earth, a 93 million mile smile. Building the sun took about 90 minutes. The 7.9 X 4.9 meter tarpaulin was pre prepared at home using four litres of matte black masonry paint. During  the activity we used approx 3,500 individual pre cut  pieces of crepe paper ,15 litres of washable  PVA glue, 6 litres of yellow paint , 1 litre of red paint,  plus the energy of forty seven eight and nine year old third class girls. 

My thanks to Sarah Jayne Reid for setting up Action Sun at St Pauls and to Phil Curran for all her efforts prior to, during and post the build. Thanks to Ms Keating, Ms Daly and Principal Sr Maureen for their support during the activity.  NASA Sun Earth Day bookmarks, posters and other educational material were provided to the teachers.  The solar feature data for this Action Sun was an observation of the disc made from my PST earlier that morning.  The Solar Dynamics Observatory website was pointed out to the girls so they could continue to watch the sun safely.  
     




What's Up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones 

Deirdre gets invited by NASA to the Mars Science Laboratory Launch at Cape Canaveral - What's Up for November 2011 from Jane Houston Jones

11/6/2011

 
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Back in April 2011 I told my mam, that I had put her name on a spacecraft called Curiosity for a journey to Mars.  She said ‘what good will it do me?  I told her that her name will travel approximately 150 million miles into space and land on the red planet in August 2012. Her name will join millions of forward thinking people who have been inspired   to send their names on this adventure into the future.

 I have a vision I said to her, that when in time humans build a sustainable habitat on Mars, a museum housing the pre pioneers will display their names along with the robot explorers.  She looked at me after I explained the mission and its purpose and she said to me as she often did

 ‘You’re mad ' but she had her little bird smile on and was soon sleeping peacefully.

We can only imagine that a display many hundreds of years ahead will be spectacular. The future is ours to dream about, dreams are our nets cast forward in time to pull us along and help us grow.

Mara Science Laboratory aka Curiosity ,  is one of our best chances to date to find evidence for life on another world. What an incredible twist that would be in our human trials and tribulations to understand our Universe.

Mam died from cancer on July 16th, 2011, on November 25th Mars Science Laboratory  will launch from Cape Canaveral carrying a special tiny payload, a microchip of names and dreams.  I think my family would agree with me that it is more satisfying and uplifting that we look  at Mars and think of her going into the future instead of being in the past.  4990 Irish people (including me) put their names on Curiosity out of 12,464,445 people worldwide.

I feel totally blessed that I have been invited to what is called The Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup. This adventure will tick the box on one of my top ten bucket list, must do in life things.

With weeks to go to the launch and months to the landing we will be widely informed about this spectacular mission.  August 2012 will see the cruise stage punch into the Martian atmosphere to deliver mankind’s heaviest robot to the  surface of the red planet. MSL will land at Gale Crater hopefully to the silent applause of rock locked microbes ready for their moment in history


An interesting fact was put my way by my dear friend Jane Houston Jones. On Mars there is a crater called Wicklow named after the county in Ireland where I live.  Jane and I will meet up once again at the MSL launch; it’s been five years since Jane visited me in Wicklow. It is so poignant that we should meet at this event, one of the most important missions in robotic space exploration and science. 

 Apollo 11 on TV was the first watershed eye opener toward my continued interest in space exploration. To be actually at the MSL launch and to also see a Saturn V rocket for myself will be my second booster shot / watershed for the future.

The MSL entry decent and landing sequence planned for 2012 has to be the most exciting landing ever conceived in the history of robotic advantures. It reminds me of Space 1999 a TV series by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson that I loved back in the 70’s (they used sky cranes).  It also has all the drama of an action thriller. Oh if only a camera was in place at Gale crater to bring us live coverage of this historic space epic. I cannot wait, to see how this mission and my visit to Cape Canaveral unfolds you can follow my visit via my Tweets.   

Deirdre Kelleghan is  @skysketcher   follow also   @MarsCuriosity and @NASAJPL and  @NASATweetup 

What's up for November 2011 from Jane Houston Jones - Mars Science Laboratory





The Sky by Eye a drawing from Durrus Co Cork - What's Up for August 2011 Windy worlds plus Juno to Jupiter

8/2/2011

 

Naked eye drawing n Persei - a Cyg Durrus Co Cork

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August 17th /18th    2010
Time : 23:45 UT - 00:45 UT


August 2010 I was staying in a cute house  close to the village of Durrus in Co Cork. This little place is the gateway to exploring the outstanding Sheeps Head peninsula.  The night sky down there was seriously beautiful to the eye; one did not need a telescope to enjoy it. Earlier in the evening I had a look into Sagittarius before it got too low, then as the night followed on I was inspired to do a naked eye drawing of the sky above my head. 

To give me the best option for a sketch I retreated to the back garden, away from the car park lights. I turned off the lights in the house; the village light pollution was minimal. Dark adaption came to me in about 25 minutes, and death would come to anybody who turned on a light.

Bliss greeted my eyes as the wonders of the summer sky opened up for me and the seeing was good.


We had brought along comfy canvas beach chairs, one of these was fine to sink into and observe.  My tools for the drawing were a sheet of black paper, a clip board, a white gel pen, finely grated white pastel, blending stick ,cotton wool,  and a red head light.

My working area was the star n Persei and from that visualy  along the galaxy  to a Cyg. I carefully added the stars in each visible  constellation .  Larger brighter dots according to magnitude and so on and so forth till I had a star map on my paper which mirrored the sky above my head and toward the North East. The Double Cluster and Andromeda were crystal clear naked eye objects, not usual from my home garden at all. The placement of these objects was very helpful in lining up significant stars like alpha Cyg ie Deneb in the constellation Cygnus and all the stars that made  paths in the sky to each other.

A small wad of cotton wool loaded carefully with finely grated white pastel was how I added the magnificent Milky Way and all its visible star laden tendrils. When my drawing was almost finished a long trailing Perseid shot from n Persei, went flying past Cassiopeia and ended its journey just short of   delta Cep . At its leading end for a nano second I noticed a sickle shaped flick of white. This meteor and its unusual flick was added into my drawing . It was a few weeks before I could look this up and discover that some Perseids produce visible bow shocks in front of themselves as they enter our atmosphere.  However so far I have only come across records of Perseids bow shocks that were caught on film, so would love to know if anyone has seen one by eye while observing.
   skysketcher@gmail.com


What's Up for August 2011  Jane Houston Jones - Windy Worlds and Juno to Jupiter
Wonderful Mission!!!  Go Go Juno

The Big Moon Ball Project - What's Up for March 2010 from Jane Houston Jones - My Solar Painting on NASA Solar System Exploration What's Up Page

3/3/2011

 
The Big Moon Ball Project – A work in progress

The Moon? The Moon? How on Earth do you explain the Moon to small children?  In many other talks I had done so in graphic from and with images but wanted to try something different. I figured I would have a go at  an interactive workshop in a field, as one would of course .


Made me a Moon ball and put it on a stand , borrowed a super two million candle torch , put it on a stand.  Then I invited my new astronomy group St Cronans Stargazers to join me at our usual place.  As it was midterm a small but smiling group turned up, perfect for a first run!  We pretended the torch was the sun and the children were the Earth and I became the Moon.  For the first orbit of the Earth I spoke about the phase they see from the Earth as they looked at me ( the Moon Ball)  moving from New to First Quarter, then Full, then Last Quarter , then back to New.

The children got the idea very quickly as the sun ( torch) illuminated the phases while they ( the Earth ) turned in unison in the field at the end of my road. The Big Moon Ball beamed the moons phases into their eyes.  Clip boards and paper were provided for the second orbit of the Earth .The children sketched the four main Moon phases as they happened and wrote down the names . The parents were very helpful  ,standing at the points of the phases and also helping the children see their clipboards and their drawings  in the dark.

Of course this workshop would be so much more powerful if the Moon was in the sky at the same time . I am continuing to develop the activity , it suits the Irish cloudy sky syndrome and is also an indoor workshop.  Every child wanted to hold the Moon Ball and help put it in the car afterwards . A whole bunch of fun was over in a blink , the children had lovely practical drawings for their folders , and were on their way to understanding the Moons movments.

The Big Moon Ball Project  was welcomed by Engineers Ireland as part of Engineers Week 2011

Huge thanks to my husband Bernard for help with the sun and for taking the photographs.
The Moon Ball is getting an upgrade , the far side is being painted in now and the near sids is developing more details , craters, rays and mountains.

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I am so pleased and totally knocked out  that my dear friend Jane has included one of my Solar inspired paintings on her What's Up page this month. 

My painting is 8 inches by 8 inches
acrylic and pastel on canvas.
It was inspired by the images of  the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

You can see the image more clearly on the link below here and find many interesting solar system connections  too.


Solar System Exploration

    Picture

    Author


    Deirdre Kelleghan is amateur astronomer,
    an artist and also  likes to write.

    "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted"
    Plutarch

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