[Chaos-l] Astronomy Day (as opposed to NCSM "Astronomy Days").

[Stewart-Taylor, Jon]

Hi all.  Concerning a possible location for a CHAOS Astronomy Day event
I asked:

>> Mike Lemon, [could you] contact the Little River people about
sessions there[?]

And he was kind enough to say:

> I will indeed.

Many thanks.

> what time shall we plan to start?

Astronomy day is precisely that: a day.  Ideally, there would be daytime
astronomy activities throughout the day, followed by an observing
session at night.  I don't know how much it would cost over-and-above a
normal park day to host such an event, nor how long it would take them
to prepare for something like this.

What kind of daytime activities?  Stuff like:

   O Solar observing
   O 1000-yard solar system model
   O Telescope clinic
   O Intro-to-Astro talks
   O Astro trivia contest
   O Astro-related music
   O Build something astronomical (planisphere, satellite model, etc)
   O Throw rocks into mud to make craters
   O Astronomy treasure hunt (look for glow-in-the-dark stars,
bouncey-ball "planets", etc)

Morehead folks, i'm sure you could provide decent input on this as well.
I'm sure we can come up with lots of different ideas.  Even if we have
just one or two going at a time, we could fill several hours.


MDL, please start by checking with them to see if they're even able to
or interested in hosting an event like this.

CHAOS people, would _you_ be interested in hosting such an event?  The
more there is to do, the more people we need to be on-hand to guide,
instruct, and facilitate.  I'd hope we can work with the planetarium
and/or park people, but it may be just us.

What do you all say?  Is this a worthwhile idea?  Can anybody commit a
few hours of preparation plus a day of participation?

Thanks.

J.
-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor:  jcst at tripod.net
Chapel Hill Astronomy: http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos