The first week of RBSE was marked by classroom work and outdoor observations of the sun. Since the main thrust of the program is the use of research based science, Jeff Lockwood and Don McCarthy made sure we put in plenty of time doing just that. Jeff started us out with a elegantly proposed question. Could we predict the position of the sun in the sky when it would be at its highest? Would we be able to overcome our prejudices toward the obvious guess or would we be able to reason our way through to the logical answer that, "No the sun would not be almost directly overhead, or even necessarily at its highest point in the sky, exactly at noon."

Jeff's instructions to us were simple. We just needed to decide if we would be able to predict the path of the sun across a celestial sphere.

The marks made in the morning would be connected with those made at hourly intervals until the path of the sun could be approximated along the plastic of the sphere.

Would our predictions prove we knew our stuff? Of course we did. We're RBSE 2000, darn it!

Following our guesses about the sun's path we were then to see what we could learn about the sun based on its surface. For this important lesson we turned to the gadget man himself, Don McCarthy. With telescopes set up to peer at old Sol, Don introduced the group to the simplicity of an Edmund Scientific Astroscan telescope, our RBSE solar telescope "Miny McMath" and the hydrogen alpha filter.

Don set up three different telescopes to show the variety of images that would be visible with each. Here he positions an Astroscan telescope so that it projects an image of the solar disk on a shaded wall.

We needed to make adjustments often to keep up with the moving image of the sun through the course of the time we were making our observations. Here Don demonstrates how to focus our image so the sunspots were clearly visible and easily photographed.

Image of the solar disk produced by the Astroscan telescope. The image was clear with sunspots easily seen to move rapidly across the disk. Teachers trying to sketch these speedy spots had to work extra hard. The clarity of the image included the shapes of clouds that moved across the sun's face as well.

Part of the RBSE workshop experience would be the construction of a solar telescope modeled on the McMath-Pierce solar telescope at Kitt Peak. Here, Don demonstrates the image formed by the telescope.

Don also set up an 8 inch telescope with a hydrogen alpha filter so that we would be able to view the surface of the sun. This image was the hit of the day as granulations, prominences and filaments were plainly visible on the surface and the edge of the limn.

This is the view of the sun through the hydrogen alpha filter. Some detail of its surface can be seen. Notice the phenomenon of limn darkening visible along the edge of the disk. Filaments are visible along the right limn.