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¢.

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.

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.