Striking Sparks Telescope Awards Program

2009 Striking Sparks Winners!

Spring 2009 Sparks winners left to right: Andrew Wong with sponsor Dickson Yeager, Aayush Shah with sponsors Linda and Norman Mahan,
Ray Pan, Brock Albee, Zackery Burk- McMurray with sponsor Alan Loceff, Ryan Cardiff

Striking Sparks

The program’s name comes from an occurrence related by one of our members: A man and his son built a telescope and this struck a “spark” of interest that contributed to the son’s ultimately graduating with a Ph.D. in Astrophysics.

Our goal is to strike other sparks of interest in Sonoma County students. This is the 25th year of the program, with over 230 6-inch reflector telescopes awarded to Sonoma County students. Winners automatically become members of SCAS for a full year, receive our monthly newsletter Sonoma Skies, and the Astronomical League's quarterly publication, Reflector.

Applicants must:

Be a Sonoma County student in first through eighth grade
Attend one or more SCAS meetings or the Robert Ferguson Observatory so we can meet you
Be nominated by your teacher or by SCAS members
Write an essay about your interest in astronomy

To get the ball rolling, students, parents and teachers are encouraged to obtain an entry packet here:
Striking Sparks Entry Packet. You will need Adobe Reader to open it.

Sponsorship

There is an opportunity for you or your organization to sponsor a telescope and participate in this worthwhile program. The cost to sponsor a “Striking Sparks” telescope is $200. Contact Larry McCune, Striking Sparks Coordinator, at: llmccune@comcast.net

Spring 2009 Awards

The 2009 Striking Sparks Telescopes definitely struck a big spark of interest in astronomy with the winners receiving their telescopes at the Apple Blossom school on Friday, March 20, 2009. Len Nelson and YA Vice President Jeffery Knowles greeted the parents and excited winners at the door with a Sparks telescope demonstrating the finder alignment before dark. Paul Judge and some volunteers had set up the auditorium and the telescopes arranged on the stage for the awards.

Larry McCune, Striking Sparks Coordinator and John Whitehouse, SCAS President provided some background on the Striking Sparks has evolved over the last 24 years from homemade telescopes to the fine Orion Telescopes we have been able to purchase with the assistance of the sponsors.

We appreciated the teachers attending, especially Catherine Hurd of Grant Elementary with telescope winners for the past four years. The Sparks winners, teachers and sponsors were assembled on the stage with the telescopes for some celebrity pictures. We enjoyed a short break with the traditional Striking Sparks cake provided by Len and refreshments organized by Mrs. Knowles before packing up the telescopes to do some observing on the hill behind the school.

Once under the dark sky there were screams of excitement by finding Saturn, the Orion Nebula, double stars and a few more sights with the assistance of Dickson, Len, Linda and Alan. We could tell by the excitement from the participation of the winner’s families, friends, sponsors and teachers that the 2009 class will be a good one.

We will follow up with the winners to invite them to the Robert Ferguson Observatory, Yosemite and the SCAS Star-BQ for some more hands-on training. We would really like to thank the sponsors for their generous support of Striking Sparks and Len Nelson and Paul Judge for their tireless support of the Young Astronomers throughout the year.