On 11 November, the innermost planet of the solar system passed through the solar disk and stood as a small spot for several hours in front of the sun. This rare event takes place only about a dozen times per century. The pupils of the Astronomie AG of the Gesamtschule Waldbröl around their supervisor Günter Dombrowski did not want to miss this event and wanted to follow and photograph it at the telescopes of the school lab. But the weather did not match…!
Instead, the quality of the telescope optics was tested with observations of the neighbouring forest, and Thomas Eversberg started a discussion at lemonade and potato chips (there are no potato chips at Eversberg’s home) about the observation conditions and orbit mechanics between Earth, Mercury and the Sun. Then the phenomenon of the “blood moon” during a total lunar eclipse was questioned with the help of hypotheses, which were discussed together and analyzed with scientific methodology.
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