Rustic Skies Astronomy

I’d like to thank the ALCON 2008 members for their hospitality while we gave our presentation at their yearly Astronomical League convention.  I had a great time doing the presentation on Cassini and the mysteries of Saturn, and met a lot of new friends.  They had a great turn out this year, offering multiple presentations on everything from Astro photography to protecting our night skies from further light pollution. 

To everyone out observing, we’ve got a special treat for you the next couple days.  The space station will be flying over Europe and North America the next few days.  Weather permitting, it should be visible to you in the morning and evenings.   Check out www.spaceweather.com for more information on times.  Just type in your zip code, and it will give you the schedule.   

On to the rest of July, and our schedule!

July 24th 2:00 - 4:00  Kohler Andre State Park, Sheboygan, WI.   1000 yard solar system walk and hands on project "A Solar System in your Pocket".    Come on out, and don’t forget to say ‘Hi’!

July 29th  1:00 - 4:30   7:00 - 10:30   Cedarburg Cultural Center, Cedarburg, WI.   Space Day Camp   In the afternoon we will be having hands on solar system crafts and activities and also solar observing.   In the evening, we will be having ‘Search the Sky with your Naked Eye’ starting at 7:00 with Joe & Mary Glover.  Following their program, we will be doing deep sky viewing with telescopes.  These activities are meant for children and adults alike.  Please contact Sue at the Cedarburg Cultural Center for further details. 

After these, I will be disappearing off the planet doing my own deep sky observing in the deep dark woods of Northern Wisconsin for 2 weeks. 

Rustic Skies Astronomy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and its your donations that keep us going!  We now have a Paypal donations button found on our donations page for your convenience.   We appreciate the money so far donated, but we have a way to go to reach our goal for our Wyoming facilties.  With your help, we can get the Rustic Skies Astronomy facilities up and running!  

The goal for Rustic Skies is to open a facility in Wyoming that will offer outreach programs to school, parks, and certain organizations in Wyoming, Nebraska and across the states.  The facility will also offer a campground and retreat center open to the public that will focus on Astronomy and the wonders of nature.  Our knowledgable and friendly staff will make your stay a fun and memorable one!  We want to Excite, Educate and Inspire!  We want to encourage our youth to stay in school and become the best they can be!  We want all of our guests, no matter what age group, to walk away with a new bit of information, and a renewed appreciation on our fragile planet and the universe we all call home!  Please help us with our goals!  

Cheers to clear skies!

Kevin Koski and Rustic Skies Astronomy

Hope everyone enjoyed the line up of Mars, Saturn, the Moon and Regulus on July 5th.  What an awesome site.  During new moon, we got out 3 out of 4 days and did some serious deep sky observing.  The weather was finally cooperating! 

July promises to be a busy month.  Rustic Skies is going to kick off with our second annual ‘Telescope Days’ at the Map & Globe store located in Sheboygan Wisconsin on July 12th from noon until 3:00.  Come down and check it out if your in the area.  That evening, Rustic Skies will be offering Moon and Deep Sky observing at north picnic area at Kohler-Andre State Park from 8:00 - 10:30.  (Weather permitting, of course!).  On July 15th, Rustic Skies will be at the ABC Children’s Museum in Sheboygan for a hands-on class about our Solar System from 1:00 - 2:00.  We’ll be making a ‘Solar System in your pocket’.  Come out and join us, it will be stacks of fun! 

On July 17th thru the 19th, we’ll be at the ALCON Expo 2008 in DesMoines Iowa.  Kevin Koski will be speaking on Saturn and the Cassini mission on July 18th, offering up to date information on all the data NASA has gotten so far.  This is a great event, and we hope you all try to make it down for it.  There will be many great speakers, along with loads of fun and food!  This covers the first part of the month, we’ll be adding the rest of the month shortly! 

Rustic Skies Astronomy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and its your donations that keep us going!  We now have a Paypal donations button found on our donations page for your convenience.   We appreciate the money so far donated, but we have a way to go to reach our goal for our Wyoming facilties.  With your help, we can get the Rustic Skies Astronomy facilities up and running!  

The goal for Rustic Skies is to open a facility in Wyoming that will offer outreach programs to school, parks, and certain organizations in Wyoming, Nebraska and across the states.  The facility will also offer a campground and retreat center open to the public that will focus on Astronomy and the wonders of nature.  Our knowledgable and friendly staff will make your stay a fun and memorable one!  We want to Excite, Educate and Inspire!  We want to encourage our youth to stay in school and become the best they can be!  We want all of our guests, no matter what age group, to walk away with a new bit of information, and a renewed appreciation on our fragile planet and the universe we all call home!  Please help us with our goals!  

Cheers to clear skies!

Kevin Koski and Rustic Skies Astronomy

Check out on the schedule of events our Farewell to Summer program to be held at Kohler Andre State Park in Sheboygan WI.   We know it seems like summer just arrived, but this big event has been months in the making!   There will be activities and viewing (both solar and deep sky) all day and into night.   Joe and Mary Glover along with the Sheboygan Astronomical Society will be with us to make this day a special event!   Expect stacks of fun! 

We hope that the weather has been better for you than us for observing.  We are anxiously awaiting the new moon to get out and do some deep sky observing.  

Rustic Skies Astronomy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and its your donations that keep us going!  We now have a Paypal donations button found on our donations page for your convenience.   We appreciate the money so far donated, but we have a way to go to reach our goal for our Wyoming facilties.  With your help, we can get the Rustic Skies Astronomy facilities up and running!  

The goal for Rustic Skies is to open a facility in Wyoming that will offer outreach programs to school, parks, and certain organizations in Wyoming, Nebraska and across the states.  The facility will also offer a campground and retreat center open to the public that will focus on Astronomy and the wonders of nature.  Our knowledgable and friendly staff will make your stay a fun and memorable one!  We want to Excite, Educate and Inspire!  We want to encourage our youth to stay in school and become the best they can be!  We want all of our guests, no matter what age group, to walk away with a new bit of information, and a renewed appreciation on our fragile planet and the universe we all call home!  Please help us with our goals!  

That’s it for this week….and as always

STARS RULE!

Kevin Koski and Rustic Skies Astronomy

It took a few months, but we finally got the approval for our non-profit status.  On the donations page, we now have a donations button so donations can be made through your PayPal account.  They do except Visa, Master Card, Discover, and American Express.  All donations are tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) tax laws.  With your help, we’ll be able to continue our outreach program, and get to our goal of opening the Rustic Skies facilities.  This will enable people to come out and enjoy the dark skies, and the beauty of nature, in a relaxing but educational setting. 

Please check our schedule of events page for upcoming events.  We hope to see you there, and don’t hesitate to say ‘Hi’.  

Excite, Educate, Inspire!  That’s our goal, please help us reach this!

As always….

STARS RULE!

Kevin and Rustic Skies Astronomy

We’ve added alot of fun and new activities that we’ll be presenting at our public session, along with adding these to our private presentations.  These activities are designed to not only teach, but gives everyone a chance to get their hands into crafts of the Solar System, our Sun, all while having loads of fun! 

Check out our schedule of events as we keep adding weekly!  We’ll be having alot of hands-on workshops and lunar observing this summer.  Come join in the ‘lunacy’! 

May 6th thru 9th I spent in Seattle attending the AFGU (Astronomy From the Ground Up) workshop.  I’d like to thank Pablo and Anna for a great time, great food and for all the information and hands on sessions that they offered.  I had gotten alot of ideas for new and exciting presentation, along with making some new friends from across the United States.  Astronomers Rock!  I’d also like to thank the people in my group (you know who you are!) for the Mars opposition dance.  I will never forget the way that they not only made the moment memorable, but had everyone laughing as they did their ‘Charge!" and "Happy Birthday" routine!  Lucky me, I was just a narrator!  Great job guys! 

Check our the new pictures that will be appearing over the next day or two from the AFGU visable on our "Astronomy Friends" page.  

That’s it for this week!  In a couple weeks, we hope to have some outstanding news for you….so keep checkin back!

Stars Rule!

Kevin Koski

Rustic Skies Astronomy 

Hi Everyone!

Hope you’ve all been enjoying the weather as it’s been warming up.  Birds are coming back, and star gazing is becoming more comfortable as the warm winds start blowing in.

Check out Saturn as its right overhead right now in the constellation Leo, just to the left of Regulus.  Remember, next year we won’t be able to see the rings for a while as it becomes "edge on’ to us.  This happens every 14 years! 

We got a new page going, so please check it out.  Items for sale currently has suet feeders for sale.  These suet feeders have attracted a variety of woodpecker to our yard including downy, hairy, red-bellied, and a few yellow-bellied sapsuckers.  The nuthatches seem to love it too!  We’ll be including oriole feeders shortly (as soon as we get the camera up and running again! *L*).   There will also be a kids coloring/activity book with lots of information, coloring pages, and activities to keep the kids busy!  All of these are great for gifts, so think ahead!  Please remember that all profits go directly to Rustic Skies Astronomy Outreach Programs.  Help us keep our programs alive!

May 3rd we’ll be doing a solar event at the Zion Methodist Church in Batavia, WI.  From 8:30-10:30 A.M., we’ll be giving a powerpoint presentation on the Sun and solar viewing through a Hydrogen-Alpha scope.  There will be a mother’s day breakfast available and a great time for all!  This event is part of the church’s celebration for Mother’s Day, so come on out, eat (without having to clean up afterwards!), and join the fun!

On May 5th thru May 9th, Kevin will be off to Seattle, WA participating in "Astronomy from the Ground Up".  This is a great program sponsored by the Astronomy Society of the Pacific and the National Science Foundation.  It’s designed to help educators with new and exciting hands on activities for kids and adults, along with giving participants a chance to network between themselves.  We can’t wait to start sharing all the new ideas with you!

Please check the schedule of events page, as we are adding summer programs.  If you’d like to have us come out and do a presentation for your group or organization, please contact Kevin at Info@RusticSkies.com, or give him a call at 920-918-2151.  We’d love to hear from you! 

For those of you located in the Plymouth Wisconsin area, Kevin is teaching "Astronomy, What’s up" as part of the adult education program at the Plymouth Comprehensive High School.  There is 5 (out of 6) classes remaining.  If your interested in signing up for these classes, please contact Kathy Murray at 920-892-5068.  It’s a great chance to learn some basics about the sky!  For those of you having problems with your scopes, it’s also a great chance to have Kevin help you out and get you outside viewing!  The remaining dates are (Thursdays) May 1, May 15, May 22, and May 29th. 

Also check out our Pheonix Lander article under our articles section.  There is some basic information about the mission in this article, and we will be adding information as the mission progresses. 

We’ll be giving a presentation on the Phoenix mission at Kohler-Andrea State Park at the Sanderling Nature Center on May 17th from 2:00 p.m.  Come out and join us! 

Please remember that your donations keep our outreach programs alive!  Til next time……

STARS RULE!

Kevin and Rustic Skies Astronomy 

Looking out the window, signs of spring are showing up.  The robins are back in the yard, and we were surprised to find that the 3 Sandhill Cranes we had last year have multiplied to 6 this year! 

Please check out our article on our Dynamic Sun under the articles section.  You’ll find some interesting facts, and we can’t think of a better way to bring spring into Astronomy than for you to read up on our Sun, and hopefully attend one of our Sun presentations, or find one in your area.  There are many interesting things to observe on the Sun, including sunspots, prominences and flares. 

Also, please check out our schedule of events.  We are adding more and more events, and hope to see you there.  

April has become a very busy month for me doing private presentations and traveling.  I’d like to thank the Astronomy Society of the Pacific for inviting me to participate in their program "Astronomy from the Ground Up".  This hands on workshop should be a great learning experience and I look forward to attending.  I will also be traveling to talk to contractors for the Wyoming location. 

     May 3rd 8:00 - 11:00 a.m.  Zion Methodist Church, Batavia, WI  Solar presentation and observing.  There will also be a Mother’s Day breakfast available. 

     May 10th  10:30 - 12:30 a.m. Coin and Stamp Show at the Sheboygan Falls Municipal Hall.  We will be doing a presentation on the Hubble Space Telescope and on telescopes in general.  

     May 10th  7:00 - 10:00 p.m.  Kohler Andrea State Park  Bathhouse parking lot, Come out and observe deep space objects with us in observance of Astronomy Day.

     May 13th  6:00 - 8:30 p.m.  Kewaskum Public Library.  Presentation on Saturn and telecsope observing (weather permitting).  

     June 17th  1:00 - 2:30 p.m.  ABC Children’s Museum, Sheboygan, WI.  Kick off of the museums science club for the summer.  

     June 24th  1:00 - 2:00 p.m.  ABC Children’s Museum,  Sheboygan, WI.  Presentation on Our Sun including a craft project for the kids.

     July 18th - 19th  ALCON Expo - DesMoines, IA.  Kevin will be a guest speaker, and giving a presentation on Saturn.  Should be a great time for all, hope to see you there!  

I’d also like to send a personal thank you for all your support and donations.  Without your help, these public presentations wouldn’t be possible!   

Here’s to clear skies….

Stars Rule,

Kevin Koski

Between writing newpaper articles, giving Saturn presentations and public observing sessions of Saturn, and shoveling MORE snow, it’s been a busy month!  We’d like to thank the great folks at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in West Bend, Wisconsin for inviting us down there.  We gave a presentation on Saturn and the kids made a model Saturn which they all had fun building!  They were all amazed by the 3-D pictures and had lots of questions about the gravity bottles.  It was a great group of kids, and the WOW factor was a 10.  We’d also like to thank the Kiel Science Club in Kiel Wisconsin for having us out too.  We had a Saturn observing session where the kids got to check the planet through 10" Dobs.  They also got to observe other deep sky objects.  Another WOW factor of 10!  We also went out there and celebrated Sun-Earth Day in which we gave a presentation on the Sun and the kids got to talk to a Solar Scientist, Lou Mayo, and ask questions.  I was amazed at the intelligent and interesting questions that the kids came up with, and they all enjoyed the 3-D suns that they got to take home.  I’d like to thank Mr. Schmitz and Mr. Kohlberg for having us out and helping us to reach our goal of Excite, Educate and Inspire! 

May 6th - 9th I’ll be going to Seattle, WA to the AFGU (Astronomy from the Ground Up) for a 4 day seminar on hands on astronomy.  This is a great program designed to teach and share new ideas on getting kids interested.  I’d like to thank the National Science Foundation and the Astronomy Society of the Pacific for allowing me this opportunity to join them this year. 

We will also be speaking at the National ALCON 2008 Convention in DesMoines, IA July 17th and 18th.  The presentation will be on Mars: Past, Present and Future.  I hope to see you there! 

If you’d like us to do a presentation or viewing for your group or organization, please give me a call at 920-918-2151, or e-mail me at Kevin@RusticSkies.com. 

Hopefully the weather will cooperate more with us ‘night owls’ as summer approaches. 

Til the next time….

Stars Rule!

Kevin Koski

Rustic Skies Astronomy

The weather has not been cooperating this year!  Because of the snow, tonight’s (Friday, Feb 29th) event has been canceled.  Our back up date is Friday, March 7th, from 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.  We hope to see you there.  Cross your fingers for good weather, or atleast clear skies!  If you have any questions, please either drop me a line at Kevin@RusticSkies.com, or give me a call at 920-918-2151.

Kevin Koski
Rustic Skies Astronomy and Learning Center

Wow, It’s Saturn season!  Saturn is now at oppostion (closest to the Earth) being only 770 million miles from us.  If you get the chance, go out an check it out.  It’s in the constellation Leo 3 degrees below the star Regulus.  It will look like a bright yellow star that’s not twinkling (planets don’t twinkle!). 

Please check out the Saturn Observation website (found in our links) for public viewing events and presentations near you!  Alot of people have put a lot of time and effort into these events, and have done a great job.  We’re sure you’ll find these all interesting and awesome!  There are atleast 15 countries participating in this world wide observing campaign from February 16 thru March 1st.  This coming week I’ll be giving a presentation at the Meade Library in Sheboygan WI on February 26th from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.  It’s a knock your socks off powerpoint presentation.  Then on Friday February 29th from 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. at Kohler-Andrea State Park in Sheboygan we will have public observing with a wide variety of telescopes set up.  Rustic Skies Astronomy along with the Sheboygan Astronomical Society and the Plymouth Star Gazers will be participating in this event.  Joe and Mary Glover of "Search the Sky with the Naked Eye" fame will also be on hand to teach constellations and view Saturn with us.  

I’d like to thank Jim Baumgart for his continued support on publishing our articles on Saturn and our viewing presentation dates.  His help with getting the word out on the beauty of Saturn and our Universe is greatly appreciated.  Thanks Jim for your efforts and time!

Check out our new article under the ‘Articles’ section of our website of the Mercury Messenger mission.  Messenger had its first flyby of Mercury in January and is sending back some awesome pictures of the planet never seen before.  You’ll find lots of information on not only the mission, but on Mercury too!  

Now on to our Saturn Fun Facts for this week! 

1.  Saturn is at opposition on February 23rd and 24th at only 770 million miles from us.  Get out the next 30 days and check it out. 

2.  This year the rings are tilted at only 8 degrees, and next year (2009) the rings will be ‘edge on’ to us.  This means that you won’t be able to see the rings through small to medium scopes.  This only happens every 14 years. 

3.  Saturn’s equator is tilted much like Earth’s (at 27 degrees), so this gives Saturn seasonal weather just like us!

4.  See what Galileo has seen!  In 1610 Galileo discovered Saturn.  Taking into account that all he had for equipment was a telescope with 20x power, it’s amazing what he managed to see!  Consider this….average binoculars are 10 x 50 which is stronger than what he had to work with!  He managed to see elongations coming off the planet which looked like ‘teacup handles’ (or should I say ’sugarbowl’? *L*)  So if you take a pair of 10 x 50 bino’s, you’ll see what Galileo saw almost 400 years ago! 

Hopefully your weather is all improving, and your getting out and enjoying the starry nights.  We hope to see you at our presentations, and don’t hesitate to come on up and say ‘Hi’.  I will gladly answer any questions you have, or help you out with any observing problems you may be having. 

Til next week….

STARS RULE!

Kevin Koski and Rustic Skies Astronomy