AWHC & ACC

Yesterday I met with Chris Schultz out at the American West Heritage Center in preparation for the Giant Star Party on 12 August 2011. I will once again be giving Stellarium Presentations about the Perseid meteor shower in the Livery Stable at 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, & 10:30 pm. The event goes from 7 pm to 11 pm, and there will be pony rides, wagon rides, storytellers, Dr Quakenbush (sorry Dr Q if I spelled that wrong), a glow-in-the-dark carnival, and a gunfight! Anyone who brings a telescope gets in free, otherwise it's $6.

Meanwhile, on the Artemisian Costumers Challenge I haven't made much progress. Moving will do that to you. Oh, btw, my hubby & I bought a house! I did, however, find some linen curtains at a yard sale for 50¢.

CONduit

This weekend is CONduit Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention in Salt Lake City, UT. I will be assisting with an electricity demo & another demo for kids, running the Star Party Friday evening (weather permitting), and will be on panels about space travel, costuming, and the interaction of fannish activities with professional life. Dan will be on a plant panel, environment panel, chainmail workshop, & one of the costuming panels. Oh, we also get to be judges for the Hall Costume Contest. If you can make it to CONduit, look us up, especially if you're wearing a costume!

Giant Star Party Morning After

Last night was the Giant Star Party at the American West Heritage Center. From what I could see, it was a big success. There were wagon rides, story telling, about half a dozen telescopes, a glow-in-the-dark tea party, space-related crafts, & a gunfight! I gave star show presentations using a freeware planetarium simulation software, Stellarium. I gave four presentations, & had between 15-20 people at each one. I'm not sure how many people total came to the star party, I'm going to have to get a hold of David & Chris at the AWHC to find out exactly how many people came. It looked like there was well over a hundred people watching the gunfight at 10 pm, though. The event wasn't officially over until midnight, but most of the activities ended at 11 pm, & most people started leaving then, so that's when we started cleaning up. I had everything (papers scattered across 4 tables, money from donations, lightning ball, hydraulic robot, Galileoscope, Leonardo bridge, pens, jars, basket, Arno's laptop, my own 8" Dobsonian telescope, dinner, extra clothes to deal with the change in temperature, and multiple boxes & bags for everything to pack into) back into my Bug by 12:30 am (Saturday). I've said it before, & I'll say it again, Bugs are awesome. When I unpacked it before the party started, the people who saw everything come out were amazed. I love my Bug.

Once I've had a chance to process everything, I'll post a report on the success of the Giant Star Party. Hope to see you there next year.

Giant Star Party

Yesterday I had a meeting with David Sidwell & Chris Schultz from the American West Heritage Center about their Giant Star Party on August 13th. Today I have been following up on that. I sent an email to the Cache Valley Stargazers to find out if they would be willing to change their already scheduled star party on August 13th from Mt Logan Park to the AWHC, and heard back from one person who is in favor of it. I found out Arno already has Stellarium on his laptop, so I will be able to use that for my presentations. I really like
Stellarium because it has artwork available for a variety of cultures mythology, not just the Ancient Greeks. Also, it's open source, and so free! And easy to use. It also has a "red-eye" mode, so you could take a computer out stargazing, and be able to use it without losing your night vision. I found 9 paper models from NASA, ranging from a bird to the space shuttle. I still need to contact the GAS team & SPS, as well as the outreach people from SDL & ATK.

So Far, So Good

Friday was the first Cache Valley Stargazers meeting I made it to in a long time. It was also the last one until fall. There are several star parties scheduled over the summer, though. On July 9, there will be one out at Newton Reservoir. The rest will be held at Mt Logan Park on:

18 June,

16 July,

6 & 13 August,

10 & 17 September.

The Star Parties are scheduled to start at 9:30pm.

Saturday afternoon, there was a Family & Children's Expo up at Utah State University. We had a booth, & probably about 100 people came by. A few kids tried out the Galileoscope or the Electromagnet, but the big hit was the Hydrolic Robot. It uses syringes with colored water to move various hinges, like an arm. The challenge for the kids was to work together to make the robot pick up Legos or pens & drop them in a box.

The Star Trek clubs in Northern Utah had a Giant Star Party scheduled all last weekend. My husband went with me out there on Saturday evening for dinner & visiting. Since is was overcast, we played a fast Star Wars Roleplaying Game round, which was fun. About 11:00, a few of the clouds cleared out, & we were able to see, in turn, Ophiucus, Scorpius, Delphinus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, & Lyra. It never got clear enough to set up telescopes, though.

Today was the first day of the Astronomy Summer Camp. There were a dozen kids signed up. Today we did introductions, made planispheres and practiced using the planispheres with Flash Planetarium. Then we went outside and did some Kinesthetic Astronomy-type activities. I think it went well, and hope the next three days will also go well. I'll let you know tomorrow & Wednesday. Thursday, as soon as camp is over, I will be heading to Uprising, where I will also be teaching an astronomy class. I'll let you know how that goes next Monday.

Finally!

The 501(c)3 application is finally complete. By Monday, it will be in the mail. This means we can finally start applying for grants. Time to start writing. :-)

After our board meeting this afternoon, I went out to the Logan Airport for the Celebration of Flight. Got to see a B-17 Flying Fortress: probably one of the coolest planes ever. I also talked to a number of people, pilots, a guy from Exxon, a Civil Air Patrol major, & a lady from Channel 8 KUTA. I left business cards with most of these people, and the lady from Channel 8 would like to have me come in to the studio to talk about the upcoming events we are going to be involved with.

We are going to be very busy in the coming weeks. On 12 June, we will be at the Family & Children's Expo, part of USU's Unlocking Your Child’s Potential Conference. That same evening, I will be out in Trenton, UT at a Giant Star Party for all of the Northern Utah Star Trek Clubs. Then starting on Monday, 14 June, Neil Dabb & I will be teaching at a summer camp for Logan City's Gifted & Talented elementary students. The camp will run for four days. Neil will teach in the mornings about weather, & I will teach in the afternoons about Astronomy. As soon as I am done on Thursday, I will be taking off for Firth, ID, where I will be teaching a Beginning Astronomy class for the Society of Creative Anachronism. And before all of that starts, next Friday, the 11th, is the monthly Cache Valley Stargazers meeting.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. This seems like a lot to do, in a very short time, & I only have a week to prepare.

Giant Star Party

The Giant Star Party at the American West Heritage Center last week was a big success. Over 100 people came to the StarLab presentations, and a lot more were there for the various other activities. In my presentations, I pointed out where Neptune was (among other things) and suggested that the audience go ask the people with telescopes to find Neptune for them. I don't actually know if any of them did. The Glow-in-the-Dark tea party had leftovers, so I took some fruit and miniature muffins home. The muffins had little stylized icing meteors on them, which looked cool, and they were very yummy. A number of people took the flyers I had available, telling a little about the plans I have for Cache StarHouse, and the problems the Jr Engineering program is facing with budget cuts. Hopefully, someone will know someone who has access to some funding and can help us out.

Some of the schools here in Cache Valley are starting this week. If I knew the equipment was still going to be around, I would already be calling principals to schedule the planetarium. Hopefully, some funding will come through before the end of this month.