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[Mechanizoid]

Hi everyone!

 

I reached out to the Sedona Community Library here in Sedona, AZ, and convinced them to host a public viewing night on Wednesday, May 21st. They're calling it the Astronomy Night on the Commons, and you can see it in the library event calendar here: https://communitylib.../event/14392391

 

This is the description that our event sponsor, Tasha, put together:

 

Get ready for an out-of-this-world experience at our Astronomy Night on the Commons! Join local astronomers and explore the wonders of the universe, including distant galaxies and the red planet, Mars. This all-ages event invites you to use high-powered telescopes to get an up-close look at the night sky, with experts on hand to answer all your space-related questions. Thanks to special equipment brought to us by Christopher Phoenix, we’ll also be streaming live, ultra-detailed images through astrophotography, offering you an even closer view of celestial bodies. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the cosmos and discover the beauty of our universe!

 

We'll be setting up our scopes on the patio area adjacent the library building, and viewing is scheduled to begin at 8pm (it'll still be twilight, so we'll start with bright targets and start chasing fainter stuff closer to 9pm). I pitched this as an EAA viewing event, and I plan to demonstrate live stacking in SharpCap with my RASA.  All scopes are welcome though, and we plan to have a mix of visual and EAA scopes out on the patio. One of my friends plans to bring his 16" dob with a night vision eyepiece. 

 

We're still hoping to attract some more astronomers, so if you are local to the Sedona/VOC/Verde Valley area and would like to bring a scope, please PM me! Space is limited so I do need to know how many astronomers and scopes we'll have. This event is not affiliated with any club, and all astronomers are welcome. However, Tasha and I have scheduled it for the same night that the local Sirius Lookers club has their monthly meeting. Sadly, our club has declining attendance and rarely arranges new outreach events, so I had to arrange this on my own. I'm hoping this event will help attract new members and boost attendance. Additionally, the fine folks at the Astronomers of the Verde Valley took an interest in supporting/promoting our event, and some of their members are bringing scopes.

 

Whether you can bring a scope or not, consider attending if you are in the area, and let your non-astronomer friends know about it too! It will be a fun night for all.

[dnrmilspec]

Sounds like fun.

 

An observation.  EAA is a term with which about 0% of the people who will come, will understand.  They will come expecting to look through telescopes and not at a "television".  You should probably embrace this and have plenty of optical scopes available.  Your 12" would be a great one for visual. 

 

I am not saying that the crowd will dislike EAA.  Just the opposite.  

 

A famous country singer said it best when asked if he ever gets tired of singing the old songs.  He said something to the effect that, "I sing them and I sing them all.  That is why the crowd is there.  They want to hear the songs they love and that they expect to hear when they buy the tickets.  I am here to entertain them, they are not hear to serve me." 

 

So be sure to give them what they expect.  Give them the romance of hearing how the photons that are hitting their eye started their journey to be seen only by them thousands of years ago.

 

Of course show them EAA.  Lots of it.  But remember why they are there.  And what your part in fulfilling their expectations is.