White House Astronomy Night on the State House Lawn
by Francine Jackson
Skyscrapers, Inc., has found a great new way to place to observe – the southeast corner of the State House lawn. Thanks to the efforts of Kim Arcand of Chandra Observatory, who was able to contact and receive approval from coordinator Deborah White, the organization was able to set over a dozen portable telescopes on the lawn, as part of White House Astronomy Night. Lieutenant Habershaw of the Capitol Police agreed to our request for the placement right next to the parking lot, for easy transport of our equipment, and made sure we had cones to block a depression on that part of the lawn.
Over 75 people came to view the Moon, Neptune, Albireo, and all other sights able to be seen from the city sky before clouds came an hour after setup. We were also able to witness an early Iridium flare, and watch the International Space Station appear from behind the State House rotunda. The public who came marveled at the telescopes and the clarity of the views they were able to see, despite being virtually across the street from the Providence Place Mall.
Although it does sound like a very unique place to set up a fair number of telescopes – we’re always looking for dark skies – the State House lawn showed us that even in a city, the public can become amazed with telescopic observations, and we were probably capturing an audience we had never had before. This night proved so much fun, and the members of the State House who helped us put this together seemed so enthused to have this happen, that we are seriously thinking of doing it again. Our only regret is that we didn’t have members of our legislation or the Rhode Island Department of Education take the time to come and see informal education right on their backyard.
