Every year, Team MBS participates in a couple dozen outreaches in the Southern Orange County area but this was the first ever joint venture outreach with members from the Orange County Astronomers, Riverside Astronomical Society and the Big Bear Valley Astronomical Society.  Fortunately, this was neutral territory so no OCA/RAS/BBVAS gang wars ensued with the use of our green pointing lasers.  Leading the way was John Day from the BBVAS, who brought along his home made Dobsonian.  John won an award at RTMC for this scope (the white one) which can be seen in the picture to the left.  He also kicked off each viewing session with an exciting presentation!

Each week there was a new group of 90 excited kids waiting to check out the night sky.  Saturn was a big hit, along with globular clusters and double stars.  We were able to see a lot of constellations with the naked eye, as well as the milky way and even some meteors which drew a lot of oohs and ahhs.  The International Space Station flew over us on the 6th towards the end of the viewing session.

July 20th was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  In addition to the scopes, there was a meteorite presentation and exhibit, and even some prizes were given away for those that stuck around to learn more about astronomy.  Usually, most groups get excited when binoculars are given away as prizes but this group (both kids and adults alike) went absolutely wild for the half eaten bag of frosted animal crackers…maybe it was the thin air.

M57 Ring Nebula

Saturday night we did an outreach for a couple of Girl Scout troops at Caspers Park in Orange County, CA. The girls were excited to view, but we had to explain it needed to get dark before we could show them anything exciting. Most volunteers were still setting up when lines began to form in front of their scopes.