Fifth graders from Fort River Elementary School paid a visit to the Amherst Woods Space Hut during the 1st 2 weeks of April 2006. They had an opportunity to see the equipment in operation as well as to experience for the first time, safe solar imaging in real time! In the first week, the skies magically parted just long enough after a late season snowfall! Two sunspot groups were visible. The students learned some basics regarding sunspot structure and some of the features that can be observed on the Sun's photosphere in natural light conditions.

Hard to believe that just one hour before this the ground was covered with snow and still falling! Here we discuss some of the Sun's surface features we hope to see. The 10" f/7 Cave newtonian is seen through the observatory doorway tracking the Sun prior to the session. The Orion ED80 is the actual scope used for solar observing. The set up is discussed further here.

The image of the Sun appears in real time on a laptop screen shown here with the students observing. The refractor can be seen to the left with the Toucam Pro II webcam on the eyepiece end of the scope recording the natural light image.

An obvious point but frequently overlooked when introducing the concept of solar observing is never to look directly at the Sun! Here we discuss the strategies behind indirect viewing techniques to locate the Sun such as image projection illustrated by a homemade solar finder.

These were the sunspot groups visible during the 2 weeks. The students were introduced to the concept of solar rotation causing the migration of the sunspots across the solar disc. The 2 separate images were taken nearly a week apart.

The snacks were enjoyed by all during the cloudy interludes! Overall I think everyone had a good time and learned something about the Sun!

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