FOG Blog
Congratulations to Steve Powell! Steve retired after 37 years of teaching physical sciences at Mark Morris High School in Longview. Teaching
Steve mainly taught elective physics and freshman physical science, but occasionally also math and astronomy. For much of the most recent school year, teaching was done via Zoom, but eventually switched to a hybrid model with some students in class and some on Zoom. What was Steve's highest award? The senior class last year voted him the "most dedicated educator." That meant a great deal to to Steve. Friends of Galileo Steve has been a member of Friends of Galileo since the club started in 1995. He is our Treasurer (and past President and VP) and for years has arranged our meeting space at Mark Morris High School. FoG gave a "Human Sundial" to Lower Columbia College in 2005. Steve was instrumental in its design (and describes it here https://www.friendsofgalileo.com/blog/the-human-sundial). Club members first tried purchasing plans that were supposed to be accurate for Longview's coordinates. They tested the plans. "In June of 2005 we used chalk to mark out part of the sundial on my asphalt basketball court. It failed miserably! So I decided to do some online research on the mathematics for such a sundial. Then I created a spreadsheet that calculated the positions of the various parts of the sundial... When we were finally finished, we were delighted and relieved to see that the sundial was accurate to within a minute of the correct time. Not too shabby!" More recently, Steve was the the guest speaker for the FoG meeting in April. He spoke about the tidal forces of the sun and moon on the earth - and the tidal forces affecting galaxies and black holes. He started with basic descriptions of vectors and acceleration, and brought us along to fascinating descriptions of the largest structures in the universe. Retirement plans Steve says the reality of retirement hasn't really hit yet because he's taken off 37 summers already, but this fall it will sink in when he doesn't have to go back to school. He's looking forward to traveling, reading, and home improvement projects. Good luck in retirement, Steve!
0 Comments
Happy New Year and thank you Longview!
We had a great turnout for Longview's second annual Solstice Lantern Walk through the Solar System on December 21. We didn't have a full moon this year, but we did have tacos! We brightened the longest night, celebrated the return of longer days, and met great people. Here are some highlights. The rain cleared up just in time for the Walk. We estimate that 400 people walked part or all of the 3.7 billion miles from the Sun, at the south end of Lake Sacajawea to Pluto, at the north end. Couples, individuals, families, and pets had a great time - many dressed up with lanterns and lights. We had at least one couple drive up from Portland just to participate. Our route followed the Solar System Walk given to the City of Longview by the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club in 2001. The walk is a series of granite markers showing the relative distances between the Sun and the planets - it's our solar system, scaled down to Lake Sacajawea. The markers follow the path on the west side of Lake Sacajawea, over 1.64 miles. Map of Solar System Walk We had passports for people to take to each planet and get it stamped. Thank you to Laval for the terrific passport design. Thank you to Pat and Michelle at Copies Today/Speedy Litho for donating the printing for our passports. They looked great! speedylitho.com The planets were lit up in a small way or in a big way. Kids got candy at several planets and people got to know some of the great clubs in our community. * * * * * If you walked the whole Solar System (3.7 billion miles!), you saw: The Sun - Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club started off the event with lanterns and passports and candy for the kids. FoG has monthly meetings (details below), sidewalk astronomy, star parties, and our annual overnight event at Mount St. Helens. friendsofgalileo.com Mercury - Kelso Freemasons Lodge #94 has been part of Kelso for over 125 years! Come by for a coffee on a Saturday morning and find out about the historic building and a centuries-old fraternity (204 S. Pacific Ave, Kelso). bluelodge-wa.org/kelso94/our_lodge.htm Venus - Girl Scouts of Western Washington brought cookies to Venus again. Keep an eye out for their new location on Commerce Ave. Opening soon - but the Girl Scouts are active now! girlscoutsww.org Earth - Three Rivers Christian School is a new sponsor this year. What a great job - they cleaned up in the online votes and the students did a huge amount of work. Their teepee lanterns were especially cool. https://3riversschool.net Santa Claus - Did you see him on his travels along the solar system? Ho ho ho! Mars - Shinju Dojo Aikido Martial Arts School was our first planet sponsor! A lot of people were interested to hear about a resource for adults and teens to grow their self confidence and become who they are meant to be. Learn self defense in a friendly, low-impact, non-competitive atmosphere right here in Longview. shinjudojo.com Planet Taco - Thank you, La Familia Taqueria, for joining us with your food truck. Their tacos were great, and helped fortify people during their billion-mile walk. La Familia Taqueria Jupiter - Longview Freemasons Lodge #263 - Our most generous donor. Thank you, Masons! They have been making good men better for centuries. Longview Lodge will celebrate its first century the year after Longview does. Find out more at their Thursday breakfasts (823 7th Ave, Longview, about 8:00 am). longviewlodge.org Saturn - Kelso-Longview Elks, Lodge #1482. The Elks are another new sponsor this year. They did a great job. Did you see Saturn and its rings hanging from the trees? elks #1482 Uranus - The Boy Scouts of America, Cascade Pacific Council didn't just have a good set up and interesting information about their planet ("12 Facts About Uranus"!), they added s'mores and a warming tent! Both were very welcome at that point in the walk. This year, the Boy Scouts upped their game. Our long-term goal is to line the whole route - 1.64 miles - with luminarias to mark the path. The Boy Scouts themselves covered 0.6 miles, more than one third the route. With the other planets, we covered more than half the distance from Sun to Pluto. We did this in our second year, and mostly due to the Boy Scouts. Wow! cpcbsa.org Sacajawea - Amtgard, Shire of Mithril Hills, is another new sponsor. Amtgard is a LARP, a live-action role playing group. Swords, shields, spells - come watch them practice or better yet, join in! They practice at noon on Sundays in Lexington Park. Amtgard Mithril Hills Neptune - Even with TWO astronomy clubs involved in this event, the Mount St. Helens Hiking Club was the only one to bring along a telescope - two years in a row. Plus, they gave out some amazing taffy this year. mtsthelensclub.org Comet Swift-Tuttle - New sponsor Columbia River Reader brightened up the outer solar system, and handed out very cool fidget spinners. crreader.com Pluto - Rose City Astronomers came all the way from Portland to set up at the far end of the solar system. Check out their calendar of events next time you're in Portland. rosecityastronomers.net Two Space Shuttles! This year we had not one but two space shuttles driving between the Sun and Pluto for those unable to walk the round trip. Phil Sari of Columbia Ford generously loaned us the vans. Thank you, Phil, and thank you drivers Ron and Kevin! colford.net Thank you also... Thank you, Emiley for loaning us canopies from Youth and Family Link, for the space shuttles and for some of our sponsors. linkprogram.org Thank you, Joe Hotai, for permission to use your photos. It was great to meet you! Kazumi Hotai Judging the planets Our judges Marin, Ava and Noel walked the whole route and judged each planet on these criteria:
We will announce the winner of the Out of This World Award and the People's Choice Award (thank you, online voters) at our next club meeting (details below). * * * * * Most of all, thank you everyone who came out for the event! You got a chance to meet some of the terrific people here in Longview and to learn about local clubs. Do you want another Solstice Lantern Walk in 2020? Come to the next meeting of Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club and help make it happen. Next meeting: 7:00 PM, Wednesday, January 15, 2020 Mark Morris High School Large Group Instructional Center (enter west side) Directions and map on our About page Happy New Year! Roy Gawlick Solstice Coordinator Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club Woo hoo!
Thank you to Pat and Michelle at Copies Today / Speedy Litho. They donated passports for Longview's second annual Solstice Lantern Walk Through the Solar System. The passports look great - and they're collectible! Get yours at the Sun (south end of Lake Sacajawea, this Saturday, Dec. 21 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm) and get a stamp at each planet on your way to Pluto (north end of the lake). Meet the great people behind some of Longview's community groups. Celebrate the return of longer days and bring light and cheer to the longest night of the year! Latest event info, as always, on our Solstice page. See you there! Roy Gawlick Solstice Coordinator Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club Happy New Year and thank you Longview!
We had a terrific turnout Dec. 21 for our first-ever Solstice Lantern Walk through the Solar System. We brightened the longest night and celebrated the return of longer days and we met great people. Here are some highlights. Under clear skies and a nearly full moon, we estimate that 400 - 500 people walked from the Sun to Pluto. What a great bunch of happy people - many walkers were dressed up with lanterns and lights. Our route followed the Solar System Walk given to the City of Longview by the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club in 2001. The walk is a series of granite markers showing the relative distances between the Sun and the planets. The markers follow the path on the west side of Lake Sacajawea, over 1.64 miles. (Map of Solar System Walk) We had passports for people to take to each planet to get a stamp. The event was so popular we ran out of passports. Thank you to Pat and Rena at Copies Today / Speedy Litho for donating the printing for our passports! They looked great! (speedylitho.com) We had a variety of community groups sponsoring planets or otherwise helping with this event. The planets were lit up in a small way or in a big way. Kids got candy at several planets, and people got to know some of the great clubs in our community. Our judges Marin, Ava and Noel walked the whole route and judged each planet on these criteria:
We will announce the winner of the Out of This World Award and the People's Choice Award (thank you, online voters) at our next club meeting (details below). * * * * * If you walked the whole Solar System (3.7 billion miles!), you saw: The Sun - Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club started off the event with lanterns and passports and candy for the kids. friendsofgalileo.com Mercury - Kelso Freemasons Lodge #94 demonstrated that Masons are solid people. We had sponsors who had physical difficulties setting up and taking down - thank you Mike, Don, Craig, and Katie for jumping right in to help. bluelodge-wa.org/kelso94/our_lodge.htm Venus - Girl Scouts of Western Washington made Venus one of our most popular planets. They even had line ups! It might have had something to do with cookies. And thank you, Girl Scouts, for also helping other sponsors. girlscoutsww.org Earth - Longview Garden Club had an interesting projection on the inside of their canopy. Did you see it? longviewgardenclub.org Santa Claus - He traveled between the Sun and Mars. Ho ho ho! Mars - Shinju Dojo Aikido was our first planet sponsor! A lot of people were interested to learn about a low-impact, non-competitive martial art, taught right here in Longview. shinjudojo.com Jupiter - Longview Freemasons Lodge #263 sure added a lot of light to a dark evening, with an antique lantern collection. longviewlodge.org Saturn - The Lilac Academy for Bright and Curious Girls did a terrific job with a booth - and with lighting up the path for hundreds of feet. Well done, home schoolers! (They're awesome and really should make a web site) Uranus - The Boy Scouts of America, Cascade Pacific Council didn't just have a good set up and interesting information about their planet ("12 Facts About Uranus"!), they added s'mores and a warming tent! Both were very welcome at that point in the walk. cpcbsa.org Sacajawea - Stageworks Northwest Theatre definitely had the largest planet team. Check out their plays - maybe next time we can talk them into short performances during the Solstice Walk. stageworksnorthwest.com Neptune - Even with TWO astronomy clubs involved in this event, the Mount St. Helens Hiking Club was the only one to bring along a telescope. mtsthelensclub.org Pluto - Four members of Rose City Astronomers came all the way from Portland to set up at the far end of the solar system. Check out their calendar for events next time you're in Portland. rosecityastronomers.net The Space Shuttle Friends of Galileo member Chuck Ring drove a van between the Sun and Pluto for those unable to walk the round trip. Phil Sari of Columbia Ford generously loaned us the van. Thank you, Phil and Chuck! colford.net Thank you also to - Andrea Horton of Gyros Gyros Restaurant for your generous financial donation (Gyros-Gyros on Facebook) - Emiley Siters for loaning us canopies from Youth and Family Link. linkprogram.org * * * * * Most of all, thank you everyone who came out for a new event! You got a chance to meet some of the terrific people here in Longview and to learn about local clubs. Do you want another Solstice Lantern Walk in 2019? Come to the next meeting of Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club and help make it happen. Next meeting: 7:00 PM, Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Mark Morris High School, Physics classroom D8 Directions and map on our About page Happy New Year! ![]() Our club is named to honor the first astronomer to use a telescope. NASA also honored Galileo, by naming a spacecraft to Jupiter after him. From NASA: Galileo orbited Jupiter for almost eight years, and made close passes by all its major moons. Its camera and nine other instruments sent back reports that allowed scientists to determine, among other things, that Jupiter’s icy moon Europa probably has a subsurface ocean with more water than the total amount found on Earth. They discovered that the volcanoes of the moon Io repeatedly and rapidly resurface the little world. They found that the giant moon Ganymede possesses its own magnetic field. Galileo even carried a small probe that it deployed and sent deep into the atmosphere of Jupiter, taking readings for almost an hour before the probe was crushed by overwhelming pressure. Click here for a summary page and here for the mission page. Lots of interesting info to explore! ![]() The Daily News had a story about Friends of Galileo watching the transit of Venus in 2012. Click to read the story. It was a beautiful drive to the star party at Mount St. Helens last weekend. The event was coordinated by members of the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club (Longview, WA), Rose City Astronomers (Portland, OR) and the Mount St. Helens Institute.
Friendly people when we arrived, and - what scenery! Now, it's one thing to see diagrams or photos of the stars and galaxies and planets, and to read explanations of just what the "ecliptic" is. But looking at photos in print or online is just not the same. Just after sunset, we saw Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars arcing in the sky from horizon to horizon. To see the planets in such a magnificent clear sky, with the volcano below, that was stunning! And that was the beginning of the show. Later, we turned to telescopes brought to the mountain by club members. They helped me see the Ring Nebula (2,300 light years away!) and the Andromeda Galaxy (2.5 million light years - the light left there long before there were humans here!). But thinking about light years is very abstract. What really got me was seeing the planets lined up just after sunset, and later seeing the rings of Saturn and the cloud bands of Jupiter, even the Red Spot, with my own eyes (and a bit of magnification!). After spending most of my life in the Big City, here I was away from city lights, with people who had the telescopes and the knowledge to help me see for myself large parts of our solar system. And, up there on Coldwater Ridge, the skies were big and clear enough I didn't look at one little bit or another but I could see the span of the solar system. With my own eyes. Thanks, everyone! Roy |
Friends of Galileo
We are astronomy enthusiasts who love to learn and to share our wonder at the amazing sights right overhead. Archives
December 2024
Categories
All
|