Morningside College
Engineering, Physics, and Astronomy
Outreach Page
Astronomy at Morningside Physics at Morningside Engineering at Morningside
Our outreach activities for Spring, 2006:
March 20-24, Lawton (Tara Way Park):
Public Star Party. This time, we will go for a dark night and try to pick out some of the more fascinating areas of
the sky, such as the Orion Nebula. We will try to pick the best night of the week for cloud-free observing.
Directions to Tara Way Park -
From the West (Sioux City) - Take US 20 East from Sioux City to Lawton. Turn left just after the Pronto. Take the first right (Birch St.) , that runs into the park at the end.
From the East (Moville) - Take US 20 West to Lawton. Turn right into town, just after the school. Take the second right (Birch St.), that runs into the park at the end.
Weather Update: Thursday night (and Friday) finished up being cloudy. We will make another effort on March 31 at 8pm, same place.
Friday March 31, 5:30 pm. It is cloudy. One forecast calls for clearing, another calls for mostly cloudy all night. From what I can see on the satellite, it appears that the dense cloud right now will be replaced with high cloud, which is still not good for observing. I don't think we will be observing, but there is an outside chance if it clears up.
April 10, 7pm UPS auditorium
Society of Physics Students members will be presenting elements from our Physics in the Community outreach
program. This is a public-level, family-friendly presentation, hopefully with something for all ages.
April, date and time TBA:
Engineering design competition again. Watch this space for this year's competition! Open to all.
Fall, 2005:
November 3. Public talk. "What's the Big Deal with Einstein?" Dr. Thomas Hockey, University of Northern Iowa.
This event will take a look at the impact that Einstein's 1905 work on Brownian Motion, Special Theory of
Relativity, and light quanta has had over the past 100 years. 7pm, UPS auditorium, Morningside College campus.
This event was very well attended, with approximately 60 people showing to learn more about Einstein.
November 7 Public Star Party, 6pm-9pm. From 7pm-9pm, Mars will be visible. The crescent moon is also a wonderful sight
through a telescope.
At last, a clear night (well, almost anyway)!!! We had several telescopes of various configurations set-up to gaze through, and several amateur experts on-hand to answer questions about setting up telescopes. The Observatory was opened for the first time in several years, but the telescope still isn't quite operational. About 40 people were in attendance, and the event received coverage from the Sioux City Journal.
Spring, 2005.
The open house in April was a lot of fun. SPS students performed demonstrations of all of the fundamental laws of physics including: conservation of energy, conservation of linear and angular momentum, various force demonstrations, electromagnetic induction, and thermal properties. We also participated in the world-wide event, "Physics Enlightens the World", an event organized to transmit an electromagnetic signal all the way around the world in 24 hours in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death (http://www.wyp2005.at/glob1-light.htm) . The evening was finished with an unconventional ice cream party.
The winners of the paper airplane design competition were
Dr. Dave Slaven, Morningside College for longest hang-time
Grant Turner, Sioux City (age 7) for longest range
Congratulations to these two expert designers.
We hope to see more people next year!
OH, AND DON'T MISS THE PICTURES OF THE AURORAE
