Astronomy Day - October 23, 2004

Well, Astronomy Day in Huntsville has come and gone - we had quite a crowd. I
know this not only by visual inspection, but because the hot dog vendor sold over
100 hot dogs, and a lot of the folks didn't buy them. As usual, the kids were the best
part of the event - here's a shot showing some of the goings on:

I set up under one of the lawn tents, and laid out the goodies - Fliskits catalogs,
Underdog Rockets flyers, a 1-pager information sheet I cobbled up, and the piece
de resistance, about 30 paper rockets (20 Midnight Express - regular and Tour de
Deuce version - and 10 Caution rockets). Naturally, the rockets I had brought drew
people's attention as well - especially the Underdog Crayon rocket and the Fliskits
Rhino.

The paper rockets are all gone... Guess which was the most popular? The Tour de
Deuce version of the Express! There were lots of folks fond of its red, white, and blue
"patriotic" decor. I have a couple of the Fliskits catalogs and some Underdog flyers
left. I will send these down to Gunthersville for the rocket display at Homer Hickam's
talk this weekend.

I launched the rockets at approximately 30 minute intervals, beginning about 12:30.
First up was a Quest Antari on a A8-3, which surprised me with the altitude it
achieved - did pretty good for a plastic fin, quick assembly rocket! It also set the
pattern for the day by disappearing into the trees - a sacrifice to the rocket gods.

One of my colleagues, Dennis Gallagher, brought an Estes RediRoc Intruder which
was next up on an A10-0T (the only 13 mm engines I had). It got to about 50', flipped
over, and landed near the pad, much to the delight of the younger kids.

About 1:30, I got serious by launching the Midnight Express with an A8-5. As
expected, it soared nice and high, diappearing behind the tree line. 2 lost.

I then decided to do something a little different and set up another pad for a drag
race - a not very fair one - between the RediRoc Intruder on an A10-0T and the
Caution rocket on a B6-6. I let a couple of the kids press the launch buttons as I
counted down to 0... The crowd was impressed with the Caution rocket, which lept
out of sight - somebody caught a glimpse of the streamer as it disappeared into the
trees way downwind. The Intruder did its usual flop over and smack the ground near
the pad.

Many of you know the mistake I made in the above - Once I let the kiddies press the
launch buttons in the drag race, there was no way I was going to be able to launch
one for the rest of the day. The queue line started to form.

Next up was the Tour de Deuce Midnight Express on a C6-7, with predictable
results. 4 rockets gone. After this, another Intruder flight - I gotta build the Fliskits
Pheord X150 I just bought! Such things are great for small fields - that's the lesson I
learned at this demo.

I then took stock of the wind, angled the rod appropriately, and said a fervent prayer
as my Fliskits Rhino left the pad on a B6-4. There were oohs and aahs from the
crowd, chute deploy was perfect, the rocket was drifting back towards the pad...

And got stuck in the tree right at the edge of the field

The Intruder was launched again, but I barely noticed as I stared mournfully at my
treed Rhino.

The penultimate launch of the day was an old, worn Estes Clipper, a 2 stager with a
C6-0, C6-7 combo. It disappeared into the low clouds and probably drifted quite a
ways on its 12" chute. Didn't even recover the booster. 6 rockets down.

The last launch, around 4:00, was the blue Underdog crayon rocket on an F25-4W.
The cub scout who pressed the launch button on this puppy was awed by the noise
of the White Lightning motor (as was the crowd), which took the rocket up a couple
of hundred feet. Chute deployment was good, and, wonder of wonders, it landed in
the parking area, where it was retrieved by a couple of girl scouts, who had chased
after it. A very fitting finale!

Demo score: 11 launches, 6 rockets lost, only one of which hurt. A lot of kids (and
parents, especially dads) showing interest in rockets. 30 paper rockets, 15 fliskits
catalogs, 40 Underdog flyers, and 27 informations sheets distributed.

Totals up to a very good day!

(Sorry about the lack of pictures - was so busy didn't have time to take many. A friend
got some launch pictures, which I will post as soon as he gets them to me).