The Webster Thomas High School has a Space Club, for students interested in astronomy, rockets, exoplanets, and other space-related topics. They made a trip to visit in the spring of 2024, and wanted to come again this year. As before, we were stymied by bad weather, but decided that the forecast was good enough to warrant a visit on this evening.
Three students and a number of parents came to talk about space and look at our equipment. We had to wait a bit for darkness to fall, so we talked about telescopes and how they work. After discussing the orbits of the Earth around the Sun, and the Moon around the Earth, we went outside and managed to see Jupiter through the 12-inch telescope -- even though the Sun was barely below the horizon.
The graphic above was created using Stellarium; I hope that the students and the school may adopt this software for their lessons.
We then tried to catch the nearly-full Moon as it rose over the eastern horizon, but clouds blocked the view. Fooey.
Nonetheless, both students and parents seemed to enjoy the event.