National Astronomy Day Celebration

Date: Saturday, 4/28/2012

Time: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: Lamberton Middle School, 777 S. Hanover St., Carlisle, PA 17013 (Get Directions)

Event Log

Name of Primary Presenter/Organizer: Julie Ashton

Presenter's Profession: Educator / Geologist

Event Type: Community event / celebration

Number of club members participating as presenters: 1

Toolkits Used:
   Shadows & Silhouettes
   Exploring the Solar System
   Space Rocks
   Other NSN Resources (Telecons, Astronomy Resources Download, etc)

Topics Covered:
   Comets
   Extrasolar Planets
   Gravity
   Moon
   Phases & Eclipses
   Size/Distance Scales
   Solar System
   Sun
   Telescopes

Total number of visitors: 277

What materials were handed out?
SkyMaps Evening Sky Map (May)- 80

Comments and anecdotes about the event:
Representatives from three astronomy clubs joined forces on Saturday, April 28th to celebrate National Astronomy Day at Lamberton Middle School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. River Bend Astronomy Club - East (Mark Brown), TriState Astronomers (Reese Davis), and Dickinson College AstroClub (Julie Ashton & Meaghan Murphy) enticed visitors with an array of telescopes designed to capture distant photons. This was Lamberton Middle School's 2nd annual Astronomy Day celebration. Although conditions outside of school did not permit observations through telescopes, astronomy club members, Carlisle students, parents and teachers volunteered their time to staff two dozen activity stations with the purpose to promote education about amateur astronomy and to bring space-related concepts and ideas to our visitors. We were able to engage and discuss with our visitors the different types of telescopes and their importance. Some of the demonstrations included moon phases, craters on the moon, comets and the upcoming Venus Transit - just to name a few.