In a bi-weekly event named "Telescopes Around Town" hosted by the Astronomy Students Association, we set up telescopes (both specifically created for solar view and also some modified ones) in public places around Austin and let people come on up and look at the sun and ask us questions about Astronomy. This weekend we were set up on a street corner in South Congress for a few hours. We at first were expecting not many people to stop and look, but before we knew it we had quite a crowd gather around. Despite the sun not displaying many sun spots (which is usually one of the bigger attractions), many people seemed to have an awesome time, especially little kids!
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In a bi-weekly event named "Telescopes Around Town" hosted by the Astronomy Students Association, we set up telescopes (both specifically created for solar view and also some modified ones) in public places around Austin and let people come on up and look at the sun and ask us questions about Astronomy. This weekend we were set up on the side of a path near the Capitol. Despite the hot day, we had a number of visitors from all over the place (there were even some from other countries) and also the sun was quite active (the sun had many sun spots as well as solar prominences) which led to many flabbergasted people when told the details of what they were viewing, and also asking a number of questions regarding it. I was also even able to assist several individuals who did not know English by describing what they were seeing in Spanish instead, which made them noticeably more comfortable as well as still get the full experience of the viewing.
Telescopes of Austin
I went out with Astronomy Students Association to Zilker Park and set up a telescope so that the general public could look at the sun through a solar filter. It was actually a lot more fun that I expected it was going to be, and some of the families also seemed to enjoy checking out the sun.
Explore UT
At Explore UT, I assisted the Astronomy Students Associations' booth. There I presented several demos (activities about a variety of topics such as magnets and orbits) to the coming families and school groups. Despite of the sun, it was quite an enjoyable and fun experience.
As part of the Astronomy Students Association, we assisted at Kealing Middle School's camp out at McKinney Falls. We arrived about 6:30 and began to set up telescopes near the children's camping site and answered questions they had. I found one pair of students quite fun and humorous as they asked me many, many questions of just about anything, ranging from astronomy to school to my personal experiences and so on and so forth. It was actually a very fun experience for the majority of us and then we were able to end it on a very high note of showing all the children the Orion Nebula in its splendor, which left many (including me) in awe.
During Gone to Natural Sciences, I helped promote the Astronomy Students Association to incoming Freshmen and inform them about certain aspects about the club. It was quite interesting being on the other side of the table, since I was once in the Freshmen's spot about a year ago doing the same thing.
On this day, we got prepared to go to Caritas Homeless Shelter. We helped make, label, and clean several pairs of shoes, packed socks, and cooked spaghetti and meatballs. After this was all done, we drove to the Shelter and served the residents spaghetti and meatballs and salad as well as distributed the shoes and socks. We then sat down and ate with them and learned a bit about their lives.
We went to the Meadow Center in San Marcus in the morning in order to help pull Nightshades from the surrounding area, due to that they were starting to overgrow and taking lots of water from the surrounding plants. Despite the heat, the experience was very relaxing and it was also nice to learn about the center.
At this event, me and my TIP group assisted children of a variety of ages to prepare, decorate, and create treats and cards for their loved ones. We helped make chocolate cover strawberries, decorated cupcakes, assisted them if they need help in making a specific card or ideas to come up with, and then clean and play with them.
On December 8th, our TIP group volunteered at an event held by TIPCO where we helped create holiday cards for veterans, the homeless, and people in shelters. We made a a number of colorful and uplifting cards and also assisted in little tasks that some member needed help with. We wanted to do more but sadly some of the activities were already complete (such as making car packages).