Astronomy Day 2008 – “Bringing Astronomy to the People”

Join us for the year’s biggest star party for a day filled with solar observing, telescope workshops, StarGazing 101 classes, hands-on activities and planetarium shows!  We will also be raffling off a Meade ETX‑80 telescope made possible by Meade Instruments and Astronomy Magazine.

Staff astronomers and educators will be leading courses that will include learning about black holes, rockets, telescopes, and of course the intricacies of the night sky.  In addition, there will be special StarGazing 101 talks by Staff Astronomer Jason Archer, a feature presentation of Oasis in Space planetarium show and solar observing in the courtyard (weather permitting).

Throughout the day, The Children’s Museum will have free give-aways and hand-outs, and will be raffling off a Meade ETX-80 Telescope on site to one lucky astronomy enthusiast.  Like in years past, all attendees will have the chance to win the grand prize, an 8-inch LX 90 Schmit-Cassegrain Telescope. All give-aways and prizes are made possible thanks to The Meade Instruments 4M Community and Astronomy Magazine. 

Event schedule

TIME	COURSES & OBSERVING

TIME	PLANETARIUM EVENTS

Registration

Registration is recommended (but not required) for all courses and shows as they may sell out prior to the event date.  To pre-register, please call 860-231-2830 x44, or email Events@TheChildrensMuseumCT.org by 4:00 PM, Friday, May 9, 2008.  Please plan on arriving at least 15 minutes earlier than posted course or show times.

Suggested packages are listed below, and include regular admission to the Museum.  Planetarium events may also be purchased separately, without prior registration.  Please see admission information for Planetarium events by clicking on the “Hours & Admission” button.  “A la carte” course pricing is listed at the bottom.

Astronomy Day and Its History

Astronomy Day is a grass roots movement to share the joy of astronomy with the general population - "Bringing Astronomy to the People."  On Astronomy Day, thousands of people who have never looked through a telescope will have an opportunity to see first hand what has so many amateur and professional astronomers all excited.  Astronomy clubs, science museums, observatories, universities, planetariums, laboratories, libraries, and nature centers host special events and activities to acquaint their population with local astronomical resources and facilities.

Astronomy Day was born in California in 1973.  Doug Berger, then president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California, decided that rather than try to entice people to travel long distances to visit observatory open houses, they would set up telescopes closer to where the people were - busy locations - urban locations like street corners, shopping malls, parks, etc.

Excerpted from The Astronomical League

Many people know that astronauts have made footprints on the Moon and that NASA probes and shuttles have been sent into space to study nearby planets.  However, did you know that the study of the sky began thousands of years ago, without high-powered telescopes and computers?  Ancient cultures, like the Egyptians, Mayans and Babylonians began looking to the sky, trying to understand natural phenomena.  What caused days and nights?  Why were some days longer and warmer and some shorter and cooler?  How did the Moon change each night?  Why did some stars seem to move differently than others?

Early astronomers believed that the Earth was flat, with the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars all moving around us.  Yet, even with these seemingly “primitive” ideas, their desire to understand the universe and their careful observations aided them in predicting the motions of the Planets, the phases of the Moon, and even the rare Solar Eclipse!  Here is a look at some of the earliest achievements in astronomy.

• The bright star Sirius marked the beginning of the 365-day year for the Egyptians (c. 3000 BCE) who used it to help them predict when the Nile would flood each year. 
• Mayans (300 – 900 AD) were able to accurately measure the cycle of the Moon and were able to predict eclipses.
• The builders of Stonehenge spent over 1300 years building it from around 2950 BCE to 1600 BCE.  Stonehenge is believed to be an astronomical observatory.
• Ancient Chaldeans and Babylonians (1700 – 500 BCE) recorded the observations of the planets so accurately that they could predict the motions, including retrograde motion.
• Chinese astronomers made the first known recording of a solar eclipse in 2136 BCE, and also recorded a “guest star” in 1054, a super nova now known as the Crab Nebula.

Today, we know that a year is 365 ¼ days long, we live on a spherical planet that travels around an average yellow star, and that we have 4 seasons caused by the tilt in the Earth’s axis.  Slowly, over hundreds and thousands of years, the desire to understand the universe and our place in it helped people to piece together their observations into theories.  Today, our desire to understand the universe has taken us to the Moon and has sent probes to the outer reaches of our Solar System.  Who knows where we’ll go next!