We had a great night at Anne Sullivan Elementary in Sugar Land on Tuesday February 24th with eleven volunteers participating. This was the second highest participation by FBAC members for the 2025/2026 Astronomy on Wheels season.
We have had many AOW events in the past at this school and it is always well organized by the teachers and well attended by the students and their parents.
There were approximately 150 students and parents attending, but it seemed like more as the outdoor telescopes were kept very busy with long lines.
I started the presentations with a thirty minute talk on basic telescopes to allow time for Corin Marasco to arrive to give a great presentation on exoplanets. Corin has a degree in astrophysics and works at the George Observatory for the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The sky conditions were a bit hazy so we had to stay on bright targets.
On telescopes we had:
- Sean Carey with his Takahashi 76mm refractor that gave crisp views of the Moon.
- Steve Clayworth with his brand new S30 Seestar smart telescope showing the Moon and Orion Nebula.
- Lou Gehring with his powerful 127mm Maksutov showing the Moon and Jupiter.
- Mac Hooton assisted by his brother Robin with an S50 SeeStar smart telescope on the Moon.
- Richard Mannarino with an awesome classic 8 inch Dobsonian on the Pleiades star cluster
- Wayne Wiegand with his 10 inch Dobsonian on Jupiter.
Bhavana Sangam and new member Don Magdall helped out with telescope setup, take down and crowd control. Corin also stayed after her presentation and attended the telescope viewing to help answer the many questions from the students and their parents.
I had feedback from both the teachers and our volunteers on how this was a great and enjoyable event. A big thanks to all volunteers who attended.
