100 Hours of Astronomy Outreach

[AutoClub]

I don't know if anyone has started a thread on this, but since I haven't seen one yet, I thought I'd start the ball rolling. I don't know if this would be considered a survey or not, but I am curious what different individuals and/or organizations are planning as a public outreach/public service to bring the skies to the general public, especially during the 100 Hours of Astronomy.

Since I'm a member of 3 different astronomy clubs/organizations, I've got a few things already planned. Actually, starting Tuesday evening, March 31st, I am planning to be at an elementary school in the greater Los Angeles area to provide one of several scopes for this school's science night.

On Thursday evening, April 2nd. I will be at another elementary school for their 5th and 6th grade astronomy night presentation.

Friday, April 3rd, and Sunday April 5th I will be joining the Sidewalk Astronomers (Burbank/Los Angeles area) as we are planning to provide telescopes on the front lawn at the Griffith Park Observatory. That should be a fun night! I've been told the Observatory will be turning off their exterior lights to help with the local light pollution during this event. They are also open on Saturday the 4th.

And Saturday, April 4th, the Local Group Santa Clarita Valley, in cooperation with the Vasquez Rocks Rangers, will be hosting a star party at Vasquez Rocks, northeast of Los Angeles off the 14 Freeway in Aqua Dulce.

The public is invited to all of these events as we hope to show the world the beautiful wonders of the nighttime sky.

If you and/or your astronomy club/friends are planning to go to or participate in sharing the night sky with the general public, there are probably many people around our globe who would be interested in hearing "what's being done, and where".

Hope to hear from many of you!

Clear, dark skies for the 100 Hours of Astronomy, and to all of us throughout the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

Paul Keen
Vice President, Local Group Santa Clarita Valley Astronomy Club
Member, Sidewalk Astronomers, Burbank, California
Member, Pierce College Astronomy Society

[pumpkinpie]

In the Twin Cities (Minnesota) region:
http://www.an.cc.mn.us/news/story_601.cfm

[ngc3314]

In West Alabama - events April 3 and 4 (http://uanews.ua.edu/anews2009/mar09/moon033109.htm) in Tuscaloosa.

[KaiYeves]

I'm visiting a local observatory that I've been to before (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/78022-visit-observatory.html).

[mahesh]

Mr Paul Keen, thank you for OP. not sure if a thead's been done before either.
It's wonderful that you are so active and actively encouraging astronomy and things astronomical.

For the purposes of your poll, unfortunately, presently, I am 'out of loop' activity-wise...it strains me to miss so much fun, in the skies.

Attagirl Kai...:D ...tell us all about it later, okay?

[JAICOA]

A fine thread it is Paul, Here in Puerto Rico many events are going on through-out the year. My wife is a teacher and she is bringing students to my observatory to observe and learn and me participating with professors of the university and getting the college students involved. This weekend in San Juan at the Fortress El Morrow telescopes and equipment will be displayed for public night sky viewing and NASA even send a replica of the Mars rover at display in the museum. And on the 18th I was invited to the Arecibo Dish Observatory for an open house and asked to bring along my images that I have taken for a slide show display at the theather. And famed Christopher Go planetary imager (discoverer of little red storm in jupiter) is coming down in september for a world Astro-planetary conference also. And many more, I'm very surprised of the participation globaly and we are just starting with really good results. Thanks Paul for bringin in this subject.
Efrain

[Wolf-S]

I just hope the next two days will be clearer. On the 2nd of april, we had only a glimpse at Saturn and the Moon around 11 in the evening, and tonight it's raining, you can barely see the Moon, if at all.

[Papa Surf]

On Friday evening I set up my 100mm refractor in downtown Petaluma. (Where American Graffiti was filmed, I was set up across the street from where the scene with the cable and the cop-car was filmed BTW)

I showed Saturn to about 60 people before I went home. (It was really cold for Northern California.) Many had never seen the ringed planet before and I got a lot of 'wows' and sincere 'thank yous'. Lots of astronomy questions were asked too.

Very satisfiying.

After all, one of the goals is to get people to look through a telescope this year, right?

[KaiYeves]

It was cloudy last night, although I still went to the observatory out of solidarity. The radio telescope was still working, though, and we were able to listen to some small meteors hitting the atmosphere with a sound slightly like when you wet your finger and rub it around the edge of a glass.

Today is bright and sunny, so I'll go out with my binoculars. The observatory is only open to the public on Saturdays.

[AutoClub]

Hello all you late-nite photon-addicts! Hope your 100 Hours went well.

Thanks pumpkinpie, ngc3314, KaiYeves, mahesh, Efrain, Wolf-S, and Papa Surf for your responses. Sounds like many of you also had your hands full. Thanks to each of you for participating in this world-wide event, even if your skies were cloudy or rainy. Efrain, that's going to be a treat to have Christopher Go there, I'm sure. He's very well known! And congrats on being asked to bring your images! I'm always amazed at the ones you post here!

The first school party I attended went well, with close to 100 students, plus parents or older family members. I think we had 5 scopes set up in all, and each one usually had a line of lookers. The kids were well-behaved. Unfortunately the sky didn't cooperate very much, with almost show-stopping clouds the entire evening. However, we did have great views of the Moon, and finally one of my buddies found Saturn. The kids had a great time, and it was neat to see their reaction to the different apparent sizes of the Moon and Saturn that each scope presented.

Thursday evening, April 2nd was clouded out here in the Los Angeles area. I had a couple of other options for places to go, one being with the Sidewalk Astronomers in the Burbank area. Unfortunately they were clouded out also, so no one set up scopes to view. They provided lectures at a local library, so the public received some good information regarding how to look through a telescope, and what they could expect to see (on a clear night).

Friday the 3rd and Sunday the 5th at the Griffith Observatory were beautiful. The weather and sky cooperated, and I was proud to be a part of the Sidewalk Astronomers as we had numerous telescopes on the front lawn of the Observatory. The first of the two evenings there I had set up an 11" Celestron, while the second night I used a 5" Takahashi TOA-130 refractor. My battery pack died on the second night from lack of charging (my goof!) after repeated nights' usage at other parties, so I had to keep centering targets in the eyepiece manually. We were set up for about 2-1/2 hours each night before they closed the observatory. I estimate we had at least 250 people each evening looking through the scopes. Of course, there were also several telescopes set up and manned by the staff, so the public had a good selection of celestial wonders and different types of scopes to look through.

Saturday, April 4th was also another great night, this time held at Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce. A friend of mine and I both arrived close to the same time in the afternoon and each of us set up a Coronado PST for some solar viewing. Late in the afternoon and early in the evening, a bunch of other telescopes arrived along with their owners who are members of the Local Group Santa Clarita Valley Astronomy Club. Vasquez Rocks is a little darker than the Griffith Observatory because it's located in a more rural area, but we still had light pollution (and, of course the Moon) to contend with. About 200+ people attended and it was a great night. Many people had never looked through a telescope before, and were delighted that we were doing it for free.

This was a great opportunity, not only for me and the clubs I belong to, but also for the general public. I wish we could have had even greater attendance, and more hours to work the night sky before closing time at these venues. I know many of you reading these posts donated much time and effort into your respective events, and whether giving a lecture or showing somewhere where the eyepiece was located or explaining "what are we looking at?" your contribution to the 100 Hours of Astronomy was greatly appreciated. What better way of knowing you did something to promote the International Year of Astronomy 2009 could there be than seeing a smile on a child's face when they first saw Saturn with its (currently) tiny rings, or hear an adult tell a friend, "Hey man, check this out! Did you see the craters on the Moon?" It made those tired muscles from trekking all your stuff from your car to the observing area, setting up and tearing down each night, all worthwhile. I know I'm pleased with what I saw, and glad to have been a part of the 100 Hours.

On another note, this past Saturday was Earth Day. Our Local Group Santa Clarita Valley had a booth at Central Park in Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles), and we had the opportunity to promote dark skies, as well as offer interested Earth Day participants and the general public free views of the sun through a couple of Coronado PSTs, and daytime viewing of Venus. We even raffled off a small Meade ETX-70 refractor telescope - won by a local resident - as an added attraction.

All in all, a good back-to-back two weekends for astronomy. As Papa Surf commented above, "After all, one of the goals is to get people to look through a telescope this year, right?" I know we succeeded. Thanks!

Clear, dark skies to all of you, and thanks again to those who posted in this thread.

Paul