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You are here: Home / Field Trips / Seniors go to McCormick Observatory

November 7, 2013

Seniors go to McCormick Observatory

On Halloween, the Seniors went on a wonderful field trip to McCormick Observatory. We really appreciated Professor Ed Murphy’s expertise and ability to answer every question posed to him. My son told me on the way home, “I kept thinking he wouldn’t know the answer to something, but he knew about everything!” Some of the things we learned are: kids who are 5th and 6th graders now are likely the ones who will go on future missions to Mars; the Mars Rover “Spirit” bounced 27 times before coming to rest on the surface; the seven peaks of a mountain range on Mars are named for the astronauts lost on the Columbia; it takes 20 minutes for radio waves to reach Earth from Mars and the current rover, Curiosity, is powered by plutonium. I highly recommend attending one of the public nights, click here to learn more. We also learned about an interesting and free program called Stellarium, which will show you the sky on any day in history you choose, download it here.

The Observatory entrance
The Observatory entrance
The telescope
The telescope
The telescope clock
The telescope clock
The dome panels open
The dome panels open
Professor Murphy talks about the dome
Professor Murphy talks about the dome
The observation chair, still adjusted with a rope pulley
The observation chair, still adjusted with a rope pulley
We learned about the Mars rovers
We learned about the Mars rovers
Pointing out a detail on the rover
Pointing out a detail on the rover
The observatory is a beautiful building
The observatory is a beautiful building

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Posted in; Field Trips, Science, Seniors / mars, McCormick Observatory

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221 Mickens Road
Afton Virginia 22920
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