Kathy Fatyga served as our greeter, Laura Graham. provided Dark Skies / Light Pollution information, Gary Cowardin set up his CCD video astronomy display, Bill Jeffries set up his mini radio telescope, Dick Ryan, Joanne Baker and Jim Blowers deployed and operated the water bottle rocket launch facility and I showed anyone interested Phil Robert’s excellent meteorite specimen. Neal Kinder supplied a quantity of plastic bottles to be launched as rockets and Prashant Reddy was on tap as were others for the lunar and solar viewing, but the weather cooperated for neither. Some rain showers also caused a few of the rocket launches to be scrubbed, but Dick, Joanne and Jim persevered and resumed launches when the rain subsided. The Science Museum supplied space in the Rotunda for displays along with posters, flyers, signs, tables and some helpful volunteers. The StarLab mobile planetarium was set up in the RF&P Forum room and David Hagan, who served as the Museum’s coordinator for the events, also did the StarLab presentations. I did not get a chance to see the StarLab show, but I saw lots of kids crawling into the inflatable planetarium at showtimes. The Museum also offered a special planetarium show in the Ethyl Imax Planetarium as part of the Astronomy Day activities. Leslie Bochenski had planned to do her scale model solar system workshop which is a popular activity for the kids – a number of people asked specifically about it. Unfortunately Leslie was under the weather and was unable to do the workshop. We understand Leslie is on the mend and we look forward to her workshop at another time.
A reasonable number of folks attended. It was not a huge crowd, but given the fact that there were a number of other events in the area on May 2, it was a reasonable turnout. We even had a few people tell us that they had traveled some distance just for the Astronomy Day festivities.
We were also treated to the appearance of a wedding party who showed up unexpectedly to use the Science Museum as a backdrop for some of their photos. For some reason, they did not seem interested in the Astronomy Day activities, although I think that rockets in the background or maybe a bridesmaid holding Phil’s meteorite would have added character to their photos, but they didn’t ask my opinion.
One other item of news for those interested in bigger rocket launches: An orbital launch of a TACSAT-3 satellite is scheduled to occur at the NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on Tuesday, May 5, between 8:00 and 11:00 PM EDT. If you have an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon in the direction of Wallops Island, you may be able to see the launch from the Richmond area. Wallops Island is to the east-northeast of Richmond. Web addresses for info about the launch and a webcast are below:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/news/tacsat3frontpage.html
http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast/
A story about the launch appears here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090501/sc_space/glaringrocketlaunchcouldsurpriseeastcoastresidentstuesdayevening
Regards,
Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society
