This Wednesday my husband was one of 21 amateur and professional astronomers who were invited by NASA to the White House for Astronomy Night. They were joined by 150 local middle school students who had the opportunity to gaze at the stars through different types of telescopes. President Obama spoke at the event. Here he is coming out to the podium to join the First Lady.
This was Dan's best close-up shot, unfortunately the President's eyes were closed. To the right is his national Science Advisor, John Holdren.
This gives you a sense of how close Dan was to the podium. Big Question - Did he get to shake the President's hand? He didn't. Just as President Obama was coming to Dan's telescope a group of middle school students came over, and being the great teacher he is, he gave them his full attention. However, he did have the honor of meeting and talking to astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Here's a picture of my husband Dan Carroll (on the right) and Dean Howarth, Physics teacher at McLean High School, McLean, VA (on the left.) Dan teaches at Yorktown High School in Arlington. Next Question: Why are they dressed like that? Well, the White House event was part of the International Year of Astronomy and marks the 400th year of Galileo's first astronomical observations with a telescope. Dan is dressed like Galileo and Dean is dressed as Sir Isaac Newton. Dean also brought historical replicas of telescopes and other instruments and it proved really popular with the kids.
