Štefánik's Observatory

Cam's class has been studying the solar system over the past few months for science. As part of their unit they took a field trip to Štefánik's Observatory here in Prague and I was able to tag along.

Here I display a bit of my ignorance, I was skeptical of the success of the field trip owing to it taking place during the day. I was thinking, "you can't even see anything through the telescope in the middle of the day!"

We watched a video about the universe and explored a hands on area of the evolution of astronomy. It's amazing how far the science has progressed. Of course looking through the 100+ years-old telescope turned out to be the coolest part or the field trip! I had no idea how cool telescopes were. We were able to look at the sun and even see the solar flares "dancing" around the edges of it! The telescope was on an automatic rotating platform that kept the viewing object (ie. the sun) in view. When the guide turned the telescope off, we were surprised at how quickly the sun left the view of the telescope, just a couple of minutes. I never recognized how quickly the sun "passes through the sky".

Here's an interesting video about the universe someone posted on FB recently that was eye opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58fs5yI8K9I&feature=youtu.be

Štefánik's Observatory

Telescope in the main dome

Cameron having a look at the sun