Comments and anecdotes about the event:
We had several hands on activities for the kids to explore and see the cause and effect of different concepts. We explored why we place telescopes in space and how telescopes work. We talked about the HST, the Kepler Mission (later K2), and the JWST. We let the kids explore the wobble stars make when they have planets around them and how the Kepler could see the light dim slightly when a planet passes in front of its parent star as a way to discover these exoplanets. We had a station that demonstrated the effects of a CME from our Sun on the Earth using magnets and compasses. The favorite with the younger kits was the Fabric of Space (gravity buckets) and how mass will curve space. Some kids wanted to place all the weights and marbles on the fabric to see how far it will curve space. We placed the buckets on the floor on a small shag rug to capture the run-away rogue planets so the kids would have better access to the activity. They really enjoyed this activity. We did have on display the telescope being used for the library telescope program, also the binoculars for the library. We showed them how easy it is to use and they are available for check-out at participating libraries. We even had a few images of (Red/Blue) 3D images taped on the wall with 3D glasses available of the Mars and Lunar surfaces.