[Chaos-l] Telescopes still sought for this Saturday's bioblitz

[Amy Sayle]

Dear CHAOS members, 

Just letting you know that we are still seeking folks who would enjoy sharing views of the night sky through their telescopes this Saturday night, 8-10 pm, at the bioblitz at Mason Farm Biological Reserve in Chapel Hill. 

DINNER INCLUDED!  6 pm at the Totten Center, NC Botanical Garden (near the Mason Farm skywatching site), catered by Mediterranean Deli.  Dinner is free.  

The forecast looks good.  The horizons are fairly low (though Jupiter's visibility is questionable) and we won't have bright lighting nearby.  It's a beautiful site, on 300+ acres of protected land in the city limits of Chapel Hill.

Please let me know if this is something you'd like to do.  We'll need to give you directions and pass on your names to the parking coordinators.

And let me know if I can answer any questions.  We'd love to have you join us.

thanks,
Amy

==

Hi, everyone,
 
This weekend, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and the North 
Carolina Botanical Garden are holding a 24-hour "bioblitz."  In this 
family-oriented event, participants sign up for time slots to join 
scientists and local natural historians in a day-long inventory of the 
diversity of life at Mason Farm Biological Reserve (in Chapel Hill).
 
As part of the event, we will hold a skywatching session at the Reserve 
from 8-10 pm Saturday.  We would love to have a few CHAOS folks bring 
telescopes to show the night sky to bioblitz participants.  Dinner is 
included beforehand at the Botanical Garden’s Totten Center for you and 
all participants.
 
We’ll also have other night-sky activities, including a constellation 
tour at 8:30 pm and a Moon hike from 9:15-10:45 pm.   (Moon is waning 
gibbous, rising at 8:43 pm—not fabulous for seeing the sky, but pretty 
good for the hike.)
 
If any of you would like to bring your telescopes to this event, please 
email your names to me (sayle at email.unc.edu 
<mailto:sayle at email.unc.edu>) or Mickey Jo Sorrell 
(sorrell at email.unc.edu <mailto:sorrell at email.unc.edu>) so we can arrange 
permission for you to park right on site (everyone else takes a shuttle).
 
And if any of you would like to join me on the Moon hike, it looks like 
we’re going to require signing up, so contact me so I can make sure you 
get on the list.  Ages 7 and up are welcome.  This will be an 
interpretive hike, so we’ll make several stops along the < 2-mile loop 
to talk about the Moon and the night sky.  It’ll be a leisurely 90 minutes.
 
Of course, you are also welcome to sign up to join one of the teams 
doing the species inventories.
 
All bioblitz events, including the dinner and Moon hike, are free. 
 
More info about the bioblitz here:
http://moreheadplanetarium.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&filename=Bioblitz.html 
<http://moreheadplanetarium.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&filename=Bioblitz.html> 

 
thanks,
Amy

--
Amy Sayle
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
(919) 843-4129