I was allowed to offer Astronomy for the first time it was taught for the 2006-2007 school year at Lehman High School in Kyle, TX. My Department Chair recommended the Professional Development at McDonald Observatory, so I applied to attend two seminars. I loved the summer experience at McDonald Observatory! McDonald Observatory was the first working professional observatory I had ever visited. May of 2006 I brought my first group of students to McDonald Obs and it really changed their lives in the most positive ways.
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First and Best
Shared by teacher workshop participant Sherre Boothman on April 8, 2014
Sidewalk Shadows
Shared by teacher workshop participant Paula Foreman on April 8, 2014
I was selected to participate in a week long Space Science Workshop at the observatory. I was excited to attend because it was my first time to travel to the area. I learned many fascinating things about space and activities to share with my K-4th graders in the science lab at Samuel W. Houston Elementary School in Huntsville, TX. My favorite experiment was when we proved that the Earth is moving not the Sun by the use of sidewalk chalk shadow people. I still use this experiment today with my students.
From the Midwest to West Texas
Shared by McDonald staff member Joe Wheelock on April 8, 2014
I grew up on a farm near the town of Boonville, IN, and I have been interested in Astronomy since I was five years old. I received a 2.4-inch telescope as Christmas gift when I was ten and I joined the Evansville Astronomical Society when I was twelve. The club's observatory was at a local park where the the skies were pretty dark. The original telescope was a 12.5 inch F/10 Reflector that was made by the astronomer Edgar Everhart. It was replaced a long time ago with a Celestron C-14.
High School Junior
Shared by visitor Martin Burkhead on April 4, 2014
My Dad, a traveling salesman, and I visited McDonald in the summer of 1950. I was a high school junior from Lamesa, Texas. We met Paul Jose and how I"ll never know, I was invited to spend a week or so at the Observatory. I lived in the dome. I got to observe at the prime focus, develop plates, and do just about everything! Paul and his wife kept me fed and happy. It was a truly wonderful experience. I went to Texas A&M and finished with a degree in Physics. Then I received an MS in Physics fron UCLA and finally a PhD in Astronomy from Wisconsin.
Hauling the lens up the Mountain
Shared by visitor Bill Jones on March 30, 2014
My father Henry Noah Jones lived in the Ft. Davis , Texas area when my sister Mary Lou Jones was born there, My mom told me dad helped haul a huge lens up the mountain for a new obsevatory being built there at the time.