St. Albans Under the Stars
So far, for the past three years, I’ve been out for one day with the good folk of Southeastern Queens with the Group known as St. Albans Under the Stars.
Started by professor Dr. Gerceida Jones, PhD, of the Science Faculty at New York University (NYU) – St. Albans Under the Stars or SUTS is the premier program of COMETS (Center for Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, & Science). SUTS was organized in July of 2006 for the sole purpose of promoting fun science projects in underserved communities, as well as to assist in college readiness initiatives.
Their public outreach has three components:
- Solar observing with a PST telescope
- Engaging hands-on activities for all ages, and
- Night observing with an 8” Celestron telescope.
This mobile unit has traveled in the past to minority communities in four states; Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Illinois using the same methods to excite students about science. Dr. Jones is a former Board director for our club, the Amateur Astronomers Association (AAA).
This outreach program coincides with the Annual St. Albans Jazz and R&B Festival Hosted by Black Spectrum Theatre Co. Inc. There is always some good entertainment, I might add, that took place that Saturday, July 20, 2024. This event comes to fruition every third Saturday in July. The festival also honors past celebrities, such as Roberta Flack, who was honored by Mayor Adams when I first attended in 2022.
The late Jordan Kushner, once a very active member of the AAA, started this relationship with the crew of St. Albans, to which I am trying to do my best to follow his lead.
One of the more interesting activities I witnessed was by a graduate student of NYU, Paramjot Kaur who created this activity called “the Guitar String Theory” to which this activity helps teach the concept of String Theory to all ages by using guitar string vibrations as a visual and auditory display of what the theory proposes to be the energy patterns that compose the existing and known universe. The guitar strings are labeled with the names of common elements including hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Participants strum the string for each element based on the number of electrons needed to make an atom of that element. They have a choice of strumming select guitar element strings to vibrate a star, planet, or even a galaxy! “Element Recipes” are included in the activity sheets.
For my part as an observer and my attempt to extend AAA’s outreach to underserved communities, I have not had much luck with the weather and Mother Nature seems to enjoy sabotaging my plans to show the night sky to the community.
I have been assisted by a few AAA observers, most notably Bart Fried, but I and Gerceida would certainly enjoy other observers here to join us. We are making plans to join forces in the Fall for a special viewing of the Planets which most of them should be visible by then, especially Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The date is tentatively set for Saturday, October 19th. Check our website and look for a message post for volunteers in one of our many internet groups if you wish to help out.
