Celebrating Astronomy Day

[Yillara Skye 1]

I figured I would post this for anyone who is even the slightest astronomy fan. This sounds like fun!!!

Edited for space by Yillara_Soong, check the link at the bottom of this post for the full article......

Celebrate Astronomy Day

Astronomy.com's guide to making your event a success

by John Shibley

 

Each year the astronomy community shakes off the lingering doldrums of winter and welcomes spring with Astronomy Day. This year’s observance is Saturday, May 10 — Astronomy Day has been held every year since 1973. That’s more than 30 consecutive Astronomy Days. Not bad for something that had its beginnings as a small event in California that took an “if-you-throw-it-they-will-come” approach to spreading the gospel of skygazing.

 

The notion was, and still remains, simple: Set up informational displays in malls, invite the public to observatories, organize observing sessions, and soon more people will be bitten by the astronomy bug. Almost 30 years later, Astronomy Day has grown into a nationwide, almost worldwide, event that involves hundreds clubs, dozens of observatories and planetariums, and literally of thousands people.

 

To help you celebrate the event, Astronomy.com has put together a short list of ideas to spice up Astronomy Day in your corner of the Universe:

 

Construct a scale model of the solar system

Measure the longest dimension of your local mall's longest wing and let it be the distance between the sun and Pluto. Using this as a standard scale, add the other planets and the asteroid belt. Mark each location with a placard on the floor that tells walkers they're in a solar system model. (Cover it completely with tape to weather foot traffic.) Include some information about the planet that they are standing on or under. Some malls may let you hang Styrofoam planetary models on filament line from the ceiling. Don't forget to expand the model on a fact sheet to include the distance to the nearest star (often 40-odd miles away), even the Milky Way's diameter (more than nine million miles across), using your model solar system's scale. San Francisco's Exploratorium has a handy JavaScript solar system model calculator.

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Hold an Astronomy Day block party

If you're the solitary astronomer, or find yourself removed from a nearby club, hold your own Astronomy Day activity. Cloud or shine, set up a scope for the neighbors. Not only will you pick up a future astronomy enthusiast or two, you just might notice fewer porch lights at night. Besides, you really should make an effort to know your neighbors.

 

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Set up a telescope on something . . . close by

Many people get a real kick out of looking through a telescope for the first time, even if it's aimed at something indoors. Train a variety of telescopes at something across the mall, perhaps a photo of the moon in a store display. Use different magnifications and explain how they work. Challenge people to spot the real target with their unaided eye, or through a low-power finder scope. Avoid aiming a telescope through plate glass toward something outside or far away; this may make the view appear fuzzy.

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Teach them to fly

Instead of dialing in objects for a passive audience, set aside a couple of scopes for people to find their own targets, under supervision. Astronomy Day's evening sky will be replete with Jupiter in Cancer roughly 30° above the western horizon at the end of evening twilight. Saturn is also visible, but harder to spot as it sets low in the west-northwest during evening twilight. The skies also hold a first-quarter moon, which is always a delight in even the smallest of telescopes. Start with a naked eye tour of the brightest stars, constellations, and planets; then solicit volunteers to find something interesting in the finder scope, and then in the eyepiece.

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Be a celestial tour guide

Don't just randomly hop around the sky - organize a coherent tour of stellar evolution. Start with a star factory like the Orion Nebula and work your way to supernovae remnants (the Crab in Taurus) and planetary nebulae (the "Ghost of Jupiter" [NGC 3242] in Hydra). Present a tour of star color. Why is Orion's Red Giant Betelgeuse so red? How much space would it take up if it were placed in our solar system?

 

These are just a few ideas. Off course, the real beauty of Astronomy Day lies in its free-form, California pedigree: just show up, be your enthusiastic hobby-self, and astronomy will be just as infectious for others as it was when the sky-bug first bit you.

 

If you would like to join the festivities, check out Astronomy Day's web site, hosted by the Astronomical League. There you'll find links to activity ideas, resources, club plans, and more. Even enter a contest for the nation's best Astronomy Day activity.

 

Hosting an Event?

If you are hosting an Astronomy Day event, we can provide you with handouts, reference materials, and the newly revised Welcome to Astronomy booklet, written by Robert Burnham. All items are FREE to Astronomy Day event organizers.

Be sure to vistit Astronomy.com for the full article ......

 

Celebrate Astronomy Day-Astronomy.com

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I set up my scope on the street whenever there is a good show of some sort going on in in the sky and give passerby’s a peak. Comet Hail-Bopp was the event of a lifetime for me. I watched it from the time the tail first became visible till it disappeared completely. There was an event which occurred after it passed into the evening sky, I saw something cut through the tail in a matter of a couple seconds.*Twilight Zone theme begins to play* A few days later the news broke about that group here in San Diego which committed suicide to go to heaven in a UFO hiding in the tail, I am still shook up about what I saw and those events.

[Yillara Skye 1]

I set up my scope on the street whenever there is a good show of some sort going on in in the sky and give passerby’s a peak. Comet Hail-Bopp was the event of a lifetime for me. I watched it from the time the tail first became visible till it disappeared completely. There was an event which occurred after it passed into the evening sky, I saw something cut through the tail in a matter of a couple seconds.*Twilight Zone theme begins to play* A few days later the news broke about that group here in San Diego which committed suicide to go to heaven in a UFO hiding in the tail, I am still shook up about what I saw and those events.

Wow, you saw something pass through the dust trail of the comet??

That is interesting!

 

 

And I am assuming that the incident in San Diego was the Heaven's Gate thing??

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Yes to both. The real kicker about the something through the tail is that I am sure other observers (including the professionals) had to have seen it yet nothing was ever said about it.

[Yillara Skye 1]

Yes to both. The real kicker about the something through the tail is that I am sure other observers (including the professionals) had to have seen it yet nothing was ever said about it.

With all eyes and telescopes(of course) turned on to Hale-Bopp, I am sure that other people saw what you saw. I know that I personally had my 6" Meade reflector turned onto the comet for as long as my viewing area could see it. I am trying to remember if I personally saw the same phenomenon, right now I don't think I did....but it has been a few years now.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Well, it did happen very quickly so I suppose it is conceivable I was the only witness and