Teachers bring Mars closer to Greenville

GREENVILLE – Mars came real close to Maine last week.

Amid all the buzz about the Aug. 27 close encounter Earth will have with its next-door neighbor, two teachers from New Jersey brought the astronomy down to earth at a Greenville school.

John Herrmann, a science supervisor at Ocean City High School in New Jersey and a summer visitor to the Moosehead Lake region, and Mary Capriotti, also a high school science supervisor, conducted a natural science road show in the Greenville School gymnasium.

Their appearance was sponsored by the Natural Resources Education Center and the Moosehead Marine Museum.

Before offering views of the planet through a powerful telescope on the Junction Wharf, the scientists conducted a physical science show, demonstrating how certain objects on Earth would react to the Martian air.

Using liquid nitrogen to represent the atmosphere of Mars, the couple did a variety of experiments to the delight of youngsters in the audience.

Capriotti immersed live flowers in liquid nitrogen and removed them, demonstrating how quickly they were frozen and how easily they broke apart. She also demonstrated how a cap could be blown off a plastic soda bottle filled with a little warm water and the chemical.

Perhaps the best treat, however, was the vanilla ice cream that the couple made for the audience using liquid nitrogen as an ingredient.

Peter White, 8, of Dudley, Mass., called the show “cool,” and later during the telescope viewing of the planet and the moon, he said he was amazed at how bright the planet actually was.

White, one of about 90 participants, said the event had been the best part of his vacation and he intended to tell his friends back home about it.

Nancy and Basil Patterson of Abbot also were thrilled with the program and the fact that Herrmann took time to point out constellations and other points of interest in the night sky. They, like others, were able to view through the telescope details on the planet’s surface, including the south polar cap.

The bright planet also can be seen with the naked eye by 9 p.m. in the east-southeast sky on any clear night this month.

The University of Maine welcomes the public to view the Red Planet through the planetarium’s telescope from 9 to 11 p.m. every Friday on clear nights. Alan Davenport, director of the Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium, said the viewing opportunity on clear nights would be in the little observatory building located beside Memorial Union in Orono. Those planning to visit should call ahead at 581-1348 to make sure the observatory is open. The recorded message is updated by 8 each night.

Davenport also plans to conduct a show about Mars in the planetarium in September.

Skywatchers this month have had a spectacular view of Mars as it approaches the closest to Earth in about 60,000 years.